Monday, January 28, 2008

Govt to provide more ICT-based education programmes

28-01-08
Page 11

THE Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ms Naana Biney, has said the government will provide the needed environment for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based educational programmes in schools in the country.
“ICT can be a powerful and essential tool for understanding, interpreting and communicating about the real world. When effectively deployed, it can mitigate teacher shortage and address inequalities in reference to gender, language and disability,” she said.
Ms Biney said this in a keynote address at the 2008 Heads of Schools Summit organised by e-toys & more in Accra last Friday.
The two-day summit provided a unique forum that enabled participants to have access to important global trends in education in order to help them to effect the necessary changes for better results in the country’s educational sector.
Ms Biney indicated that ICT in education was a panacea to accelerate learning, since it was self-directed, self-paced and provided the opportunity for students who were motivated and interested to take more responsibility for learning.
The Co-ordinator of the ICT in Education Programme at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Rev Emmanuel Dadebo, said the country had a commitment to transform all schools into e-schools, with the ultimate goal of training the right type of human resource to drive its development agenda.
He said technology could promote effective instruction that was more student-centred, interdisciplinary, more closely related to real life events and processes and adaptive to individual learning styles.
“The capacity of ICT to reach students in any place and at any time has the potential to promote revolutionary changes in the traditional educational paradigm. First, it eliminates the premise that learning time equals classroom time,” he said.
The Executive Vice-President of e-toys & more, Mrs Theresa Sackey, said throughout the world ICT had become a major driving force and an important tool for promoting development, combating poverty and facilitating the integration of developing countries into the global economy.
He said the summit was taking place at an important time, adding that “in our quest to ensure that all the needs of our schools are met, we have added more innovative solutions to benefit the schools”.
“These include schools building and expansion solutions, schools SMS communication, as well as electronic board. We also continue to upgrade our e-learning centres with very powerful educational software, broad band Internet facilities, as well as the e-schools administrator, for effective school management,” she explained.
The Executive President of e-toys and more, Mr George Sackey Jnr, underscored the need for educational marketing on the part of school administrators.
That, he said, was to ensure that they attracted the right target groups.
Addressing participants on meeting the emotional needs of school children, Mrs Flora Sackey, who is a counsellor in that aspect, said children must be encouraged in all that they did to uplift their spirits and regain their self esteem.

Forum on public procurement held

28-01-08
Page 38

THE Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has embarked on a move to adopt a sustainable public procurement (SPP) approach aimed at ensuring that public funds are spent on projects that foster sustainable development in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the PPA, Mr Adjenim Boateng Adjei, who made this known, said with sustainable issues becoming vital in the development agenda of nations, it was time to shift the focus of government procurement from mainly economic advantages to SPP systems which resulted in long-term benefits .
Mr Adjei said this in Accra on Thursday at a forum to introduce the concept of SPP to key stakeholders and establish a task force to manage the country’s SPP approach.
He said the task force, which would comprise representatives from civil society, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), industry, commerce, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), among other groups, aimed at bringing SPP on stream in the country.
Mr Adjei said the functions of the task force included drawing up an implementation plan, carrying out public education on SPP and identifying procurement that had significant sustainability issues. It would also infuse SPP issues into the existing procurement process and establish indicators to measure SPP operations and impact.
“SPP implementation will not be without challenges; there will be hurdles to be surmounted,” he said, adding that they included getting a reasonable budget, the availability of SPP compliance inspectors, a legal framework and contractors.
He indicated that SPP was one major way of seeking to achieve the good governance goal of realising development that gave priority to the poor, advanced women, sustained the environment and created the needed opportunities for employment and other livelihoods.
Mr Adjei stated that government procurement needed to consider sustainability issues, as it was the only way it could be sure to offer real value for money over a long term, without compromising environmental and social responsibilities, adding that “this will ensure that development targets are achieved through the acquisition of goods, works and services”.
He said with the government being the largest single buyer, it was evident that what and how it bought and acquired goods and services contributed significantly to its ability to deliver sustainable development, saying that many countries used public procurement as a technique for tackling social disadvantage and exclusion.
“The PPA, being the only African representative on the Marrakech Task Force on SPP, has the responsibility of leading the implementation of SPP in Ghana and Africa. Ghana stands to benefit in the long term if SPP is implemented,” he explained.

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

RME to be re-introduced

Page 3
March 11, 2008

Religious and Moral Education (RME) is to be re-introduced as a separate subject at the basic education level with effect from the next academic year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports has announced.
The sector Minister, Prof Dominic Fobih, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the Curriculum Research and Development Division (CRDD) of the ministry was working with the religious bodies to develop the syllabus for the subject.
He said RME was not abolished under the educational reform but integrated into other subjects, adding, “It will now be made to stand on its own.”
According to him, the ministry was open to suggestions from the public on issues about education, saying, “We are a listening ministry.”
The Catholic Bishops Conference, in a communiqué issued in Kumasi in November last year after its meeting, called on the government to re-introduce RME as a subject, instead of a concept, in the school curriculum.
According to the Bishops, “sidelining religion and morality from education is tantamount to condemning the human person to a lack of means to develop himself or herself fully to be a human being in the society”.
The position of the Bishops attracted other voices concerning the non-inclusion of RME in the school curriculum, particularly from the Christian and Muslim communities.
Following the outcry over the matter, President Kufuor directed the ministry to facilitate a dialogue among the stakeholders of the educational sector to resolve the controversy over the teaching of the subject.
As a result, a 29-member committee, under the chairmanship of Prof Anamuah-Mensah, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, was convened at the instance of the sector minister to take a second look at the teaching of RME as a subject at the basic level.
President Kufuor, in his Independence Day address, said the government had decided to revisit the reinstatement of RME on the school curriculum.
Prof Fobih said the ministry was going to carry out what the President had requested.

State funding of political parties-It's Not The Answer

Front Page
March 11,2008

A Ghanaian political scientist, Prof Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, has stated that the suggestion to dedicate a certain percentage of taxes to fund political parties should be carefully thought through because other constitutional bodies equally need funding.
“Will this mean that we raise additional taxes or we annex a percentage of the existing tax revenue? Will that come at the expense of other public goods that are funded from tax revenue, such as the school feeding programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme or the Northern Development Fund?” he asked in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday.
According to him, Ghanaians must be careful not to set up a chain reaction in which a percentage of tax revenue would be specifically attached to a long list of equally important public goods.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi, a Political Science Professor at the University of Ghana, Legon, and Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD - Ghana), was reacting to proposals made by four political parties and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) that the state should fund political parties.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC), under the umbrella of the Ghana Political Parties Programme (GPPP) and the IEA, are expected to launch the proposal for state funding of political parties tomorrow.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi noted that there were fundamental issues to consider in order to place the idea of state funding of political parties in a proper perspective, adding that there was a general problem of unfunded mandates “in our current democratic governance arrangements”.
He said the 1992 Constitution imposed significant obligations on political parties to undertake key democratic governance functions but made no clear provisions for their financing.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi noted that political parties shared that predicament with other public and quasi-public agencies such as the media, adding that the media were also assigned a crucial role in democratic governance in the Fourth Republic “but without a clear idea of its funding”.
“We must take together the challenge of how to fund Ghanaian political parties, the media, civil society and all other key agencies that are crucial to the effective functioning of our system of democratic governance,” he emphasised.
Another difficult challenge, he said, was the chronic weakness experienced by key constitutional bodies such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Parliament, the Judiciary, among other bodies.
Prof Gyimah-Boadi indicated that those bodies were explicitly mandated to charge their expenditure to the Consolidated Fund but suffered “chronic lack of funding”.
He said the Electoral Commission had suffered the same fate and, “like the others, it has typically depended substantially on foreign donors”.
“At the very least, we must come up with a credible formula for funding these constitutional bodies,” he suggested, and said there was the need to find creative ways of addressing the challenge of funding political parties and in a manner that was also sustainable.
He described the issue of state funding of political parties as a great idea because it was essential for sustained multi-party democracy.
“As an ardent advocate of democracy and democratic governance, I fully support it in principle and would want to see it in practice,” he stated.
He welcomed the draft legislation which was seeking to provide a legal basis and framework for the funding of political parties, adding, “We welcome and await the tabling of this draft legislation in Parliament so that we and the members of the public can have the opportunity to review it, make inputs into it and hopefully help to render the legislation fully credible and implementable.”

Accountant General's action harsh-NAGRAT

Page 24
March 4, 2008

THE National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has described the decision of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to deduct the overpaid salary arrears of teachers from their February salaries as harsh.
NAGRAT said the action by the CAGD would create hardship for the affected teachers.
The President of NAGRAT, Mr Kwame Alorvi, who said this in an interview, noted that the association had planned to suggest to the CAGD to deduct the money over a six-month period when it got wind of the problem.
He said the problem was not the fault of teachers and so they should not be punished for it.
He stated that apart from the fact that the deduction would affect the March salaries of affected teachers, it would worsen the plight of the teachers over the period.
Mr Alorvi said when the salary negotiation for 2007 was concluded, the government paid 90 per cent of the negotiated salary, leaving a remainder of 10 per cent, which was paid later in January instead of December.
Explaining what accounted for the problem, he said in the process of keying in the data on teachers, a power outage occurred and when it was restored, it was realised during the re-keying that some of the names of teachers were captured twice.
“That was what I was told,” he said, adding that the association was, therefore, expecting a meeting on how the monies were going to be deducted from the salaries of those who were overpaid.
Mr Alorvi indicated that “we were going to suggest that the deduction be done over a period of six months, but a meeting was not convened on the matter”.
He disagreed with the Controller and Accountant General that the system could not spread the overpayment over months, since it was being operated manually.
He said it was only last Thursday that the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports told him that the CAGD had decided to deduct the monies in February and March.
Mr Alorvi said when he got to the Ghana Education Service (GES) he was given the names of 19,000 teachers who were to forgo their salaries in February and March.
He, however, appealed to teachers to remain calm.
The Daily Graphic in its Saturday, March 1, 2008 edition, published that about 19,000 teachers who were overpaid salary arrears in January as a result of data error into the national payroll system were to refund the amount involved through direct deduction from their February salaries.
The Controller and Accountant General, Mr Christian Sottie, told a workers’ durbar at Ho that the system could not spread the overpayment over months and that those who enjoyed the payment should be well-informed of what was ahead of them.

Female phone thieves arrested

Page 3
Feb 23, 2008

LUCK ran out for two female mobile phone thieves at Adabraka last Thursday morning when they were apprehended by residents of the area.
The two, aged 17 and about 25 were forced to surrender the phone they stole from a hairdressing saloon when they were given some beatings.
It took the timely intervention of other residents in the area to save the two from severe beatings.
One of them gave her name as Paulina, 17 while the other suspected to be about 25 years old failed to mention her name.
The owner of the saloon, Ms Abigail Lakotowa, told The Mirror that the two approached her at about 9 am with some plastic plates which they claimed they were selling.
According to her, when she told them that she just reported for work and therefore did not have money, they insisted that she bought the plates.
She said as she spoke to the other, Paulina went to stand in front of the mirror where she had placed her phone.
“A few minutes after the two left, I realised that my phone was nowhere to be found. I dashed out of the saloon and raised an alarm forcing the two to take to their heels,” she said, adding that some young men in the area gave the two a hot chase and apprehended them.
When The Mirror team got to the scene, the two were being jostled with occasional slaps in an attempt to retrieve the phone.
Looking at the crowd gathering, coupled with threats of severe beating and being stripped naked, Paulina surrendered the phone.
One of them who was stripped off her blouse and brassier was whisked away in a taxi while the other was allowed to go.
Paulina told The Mirror that they came from Madina, but went to the area to sell plastic plates.

Electronic payment of school fees launched

Page 32
Feb 23, 2008

AN electronic payment system to ensure the smooth payment of school fees in second cycle institutions has been launched in Accra.
Known as E-Transact, the system seeks to eliminate the numerous challenges parents and students face in the payment of school fees.
It was launched by a consortium of seven banks — namely Barclays Bank, GT Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Unibank, United Bank of Africa, Zenith Bank, Amal Bank — and Busy Internet.
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, who launched the initiative, said “though there has been a lot of improvement in the educational front with regard to access, quality, gender parity and the management of resources, there is still room for improvement”.
He noted that the government alone could not carry the financial burden of providing quality education, making it imperative for others contribute to the cost of education.
He said cash transactions faced some problems including the danger of losing the cash on the way to school, counting errors, fake currency and the tendency of students to make use of the cash on frivolous spending.
He said because of the number of banks involved in the project, speedy, efficient and secured payment would be guaranteed at all times.
“Unlike the banker’s draft the payment charges are relatively lower and fixed across all the payment points,” he added.
The Director-General urged school authorities to cooperate with the banks to ensure a successful delivery of the service by way of giving correct data and pledged the support of the GES to the initiative.
The Deputy Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Mr Lolu Akindele, said the initiative would transform the rigorous payment process parents and students went through in paying fees.
He said ”almost all processes involved in school fees payment, from collection to reconciliation, are largely manual, even for most tertiary and modern-day institutions”.
He said the E-Transact payment was equipped with not just card-based transactions for the public but also raw cash-based payments such as collection of fees and revenue at teller posts referred to as pay outlet.
The President of the Conference of Heads of Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr Samuel Ofori Adjei, stressed the need for the system to be extended to the rural areas.
He called on the banks to educate parents on the system through the parent-teacher associations.
Schools which do not have internet facilities would enjoy the provision of computer with internet connectivity for teachers and students, which would aid the monitoring of payments made online by parents and students.

Electronic payment of school fees launched

Page 32
Feb 23, 2008

AN electronic payment system to ensure the smooth payment of school fees in second cycle institutions has been launched in Accra.
Known as E-Transact, the system seeks to eliminate the numerous challenges parents and students face in the payment of school fees.
It was launched by a consortium of seven banks — namely Barclays Bank, GT Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Unibank, United Bank of Africa, Zenith Bank, Amal Bank — and Busy Internet.
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, who launched the initiative, said “though there has been a lot of improvement in the educational front with regard to access, quality, gender parity and the management of resources, there is still room for improvement”.
He noted that the government alone could not carry the financial burden of providing quality education, making it imperative for others contribute to the cost of education.
He said cash transactions faced some problems including the danger of losing the cash on the way to school, counting errors, fake currency and the tendency of students to make use of the cash on frivolous spending.
He said because of the number of banks involved in the project, speedy, efficient and secured payment would be guaranteed at all times.
“Unlike the banker’s draft the payment charges are relatively lower and fixed across all the payment points,” he added.
The Director-General urged school authorities to cooperate with the banks to ensure a successful delivery of the service by way of giving correct data and pledged the support of the GES to the initiative.
The Deputy Managing Director of Intercontinental Bank, Mr Lolu Akindele, said the initiative would transform the rigorous payment process parents and students went through in paying fees.
He said ”almost all processes involved in school fees payment, from collection to reconciliation, are largely manual, even for most tertiary and modern-day institutions”.
He said the E-Transact payment was equipped with not just card-based transactions for the public but also raw cash-based payments such as collection of fees and revenue at teller posts referred to as pay outlet.
The President of the Conference of Heads of Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr Samuel Ofori Adjei, stressed the need for the system to be extended to the rural areas.
He called on the banks to educate parents on the system through the parent-teacher associations.
Schools which do not have internet facilities would enjoy the provision of computer with internet connectivity for teachers and students, which would aid the monitoring of payments made online by parents and students.

ICT facilities to enhance teaching and learning

Page 29
Feb 18. 2008

THE second phase of deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities for the second batch of 250 senior high schools in the country will start next academic year.
The programme, which is being initiated by the government, would enable each of the 250 schools to have ICT facilities like computers, projectors, laptops and Internet connectivity for a year.
The deployment of the ICT facilities forms part of the educational reform, which took off in September last year.
Rev Emmanuel Dadebo, the Co-ordinator of the ICT in Education Programme at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, told the Daily Graphic that the programme was not only deployment of ICT per se, but integrating the technology in the teaching and learning process.
According to him, the learning styles of students had changed as they (students) wanted to use multi-media items in the learning process.
“Management is making frantic efforts in respect of the procurement and deployment of the ICT tools in schools,” he said and urged schools which had the facilities to continue to use them.
Rev Dadebo said once the ICT facilities were deployed, teaching and learning would be enhanced, while there would be better attitudinal training for the world of work and knowledge, as well as better communication and collaboration among other things.
These aside, he said, students would be more qualified to meet the requirements of the job market.
He said the ICT programme would impact positively on the professional development of teachers, and also make them adapt to the new learning methods or styles of students.
Rev Dadebo indicated that the acquisition of knowledge in the use of ICT by students would facilitate research, thereby leading to the discovery of new ideas aimed at enhancing national development.
The ICT in schools, he said, would bring about cultural diversity as students would learn more about the culture of other people, through the use of the Internet.

ICT facilities to enhance teaching and learning

Page 29
Feb 18, 2008

THE second phase of deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities for the second batch of 250 senior high schools in the country will start next academic year.
The programme, which is being initiated by the government, would enable each of the 250 schools to have ICT facilities like computers, projectors, laptops and Internet connectivity for a year.
The deployment of the ICT facilities forms part of the educational reform, which took off in September last year.
Rev Emmanuel Dadebo, the Co-ordinator of the ICT in Education Programme at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, told the Daily Graphic that the programme was not only deployment of ICT per se, but integrating the technology in the teaching and learning process.
According to him, the learning styles of students had changed as they (students) wanted to use multi-media items in the learning process.
“Management is making frantic efforts in respect of the procurement and deployment of the ICT tools in schools,” he said and urged schools which had the facilities to continue to use them.
Rev Dadebo said once the ICT facilities were deployed, teaching and learning would be enhanced, while there would be better attitudinal training for the world of work and knowledge, as well as better communication and collaboration among other things.
These aside, he said, students would be more qualified to meet the requirements of the job market.
He said the ICT programme would impact positively on the professional development of teachers, and also make them adapt to the new learning methods or styles of students.
Rev Dadebo indicated that the acquisition of knowledge in the use of ICT by students would facilitate research, thereby leading to the discovery of new ideas aimed at enhancing national development.
The ICT in schools, he said, would bring about cultural diversity as students would learn more about the culture of other people, through the use of the Internet.

'Review teaching methods in tertiary institutions'

Page 24
Feb 18, 2008

President J.A. Kufuor has advocated a review of the teaching and learning processes, as well as the curricula of tertiary institutions, to enable them to produce innovative and inspired graduates for national development.
He said for any tertiary institution to be able to achieve excellence, it ought to provide high quality and applicable education, adding that “there is the need for the building of a conducive environment and culture in which students can genuinely have all the knowledge and skills required for any occupation and profession”.
President Kufuor noted these in an address read on his behalf by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, at the fifth graduation of the Methodist University College, Ghana last Saturday.
He said for Ghana to meet the demands of the modern world, there was the need for a highly differentiated and diverse higher educational system that would meet the socio-economic and educational needs of the country.
“It is important that our universities become innovative, entrepreneurial and creative in the provision of quality education. It is time for tertiary institutions in Ghana to move away from the situation where every institution seeks to do the same thing,” he said.
President Kufuor commended the timely intervention and initiative made by private institutions in complementing the efforts the government to meet the tertiary educational demands for the increasing population.
The Principal of MUCG, the Very Rev Professor Samuel Kwasi Adjepong, said the university had introduced new programmes with effect from the 2007/2008 academic year.
He mentioned MBA in Accounting, Finance, Human Resource Management and Marketing, Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Mathematics and Statistics, MPhil in Mathematics, Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Studies, BA in Religious Studies and Ethics and BA in French.
Rev Prof Adjepong said with the new educational reform, the university would, from next academic year, offer a certificate programme in Educational and Moral Leadership, saying that with effect from the 2007/08 academic year, MUCG would start a one-year certificate programme in Information Technology, with options in Information Science, Web Design, Networking and E-Commerce.
According to him, efforts were being made to offer Chinese language in its faculty and that the Chinese Embassy had already been contacted for support in terms of staff and teaching materials.
On infrastructural development, the principal noted that it had tremendously improved, especially with the construction of the three-storey administration block which had fully been completed.
As part of efforts to expand infrastructure and increase intake, he said an 8.46 acre land had been acquired along the Accra-Tema Motorway for the construction of a permanent building for the Tema campus of the university.
In all, 422 graduands were conferred with various degrees in Business Administration, Economics, Economics and Mathematics-Statistics and (IT). Thirty of the graduands had First Class, 111 Second Class (Upper Division), 248 Second Class (Lower Division) and 33 Third Class.
Mrs Matilda Dorothy Reindorf was adjudged the Overall Best Student with a prize package of a plaque, an undisclosed amount of money and a refrigerator.

NUGS cautions students, youth

Page 14
Feb 16, 2008

THE National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has urged students and the youth in general not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to disturb the peace of the nation during the 2008 elections.
“What all politicians must also remember is that Ghana is bigger than any individual’s parochial interest and that posterity will judge them badly if their actions or inaction leads to violence during the 2008 electioneering process and beyond,” it said.
The President of NUGS, Mr Kweku Tuoho Bombason, who stated this at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, noted that politicians and the various political parties should allow tolerance, commitment and unity to be at play as the county entered the 2008 electioneering process.
He stressed the need for the Electoral Commission, the political parties and the government to “have all hands on deck to ensure that we have peaceful, free and fair elections”.
“In view of this, NUGS would want to call on the various presidential candidates, the political parties and their supporters to conduct issue-based campaigns with decorum and civility,” he stated, adding that “what Ghanaians want to hear from them is the type of policies and programmes they have for our educational, health and agricultural sectors, among other things, which will better their lot, not insults and vile propaganda”.
Mr Bombason, who commended the government for the coming up with the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), underscored the need for the challenges facing the programme to be addressed to make it more sustainable.
On education, he lauded the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for the numerous projects it had undertaken on the various university campuses.
However, he said, the operations of the board had sometimes generated controversy and, therefore, urged the government and the GETFund Board to introduce a legislative instrument that would streamline the board’s operations.
Mr Bombason congratulated the Black Stars on their great performance during the just-ended Africa Cup of Nations (Ghana 2008).
“Ghanaians at large need a great deal of commendation for their relentless support for the Black Stars during the tournament,” he said.

Three senior high schools recall students

Page 11
Feb 1, 2008
Accommodation facilities provided by three senior high schools in Accra to be used as hostels for soccer fans during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana were not used.
Facilities of the schools namely, the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School (PRESEC), Achimota School and Accra Academy were to be used to accommodate visiting soccer fans.
Consequently, first and second-year students of the affected schools were asked to stay at home till the end of the competition which began on January 20, 2008.
Since the accommodation facilities are not being used, the schools have begun recalling their first and second-year students.
The Headmaster of PRESEC, Mr Africanus Anane, told the Daily Graphic that the affected students had been asked to report to school on February 4, 2008 instead of the proposed February 14, 2008.
He said the school made available 1,000 beds from six of their eight houses for supporters, adding that with the current situation the school authorities had to recall the students for academic work to begin.
He explained that recalling the students was an extra cost to the school since announcements had to be made in the media to get them back.
Mr Anane said the school had put in place measures to ensure that the period lost was covered.
He noted that the Local Organising Committee (LOC) might have overestimated the number of fans that were expected.
He said next time, the LOC should contact the embassies to know the number of people who would be coming, before making arrangements to accommodate them.
When the Daily Graphic got to the Achimota School, it realised that the first and second-year students had already reported. Some of the students said they were asked to report on Monday, January 28, 2008 when the authorities realised that the accommodation facilities would not be used.
At Accra Academy, the Assistant Headmaster (Academic), Mr C.T. Asare, said the school had made 200 beds available for fans, but because they could not use the facilities, the students had to be recalled.
He said the school had made provision for the period lost.
The Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Professor Dominic Fobih, said the move by the ministry was only a contingency measure to ensure that there was no accommodation problem for fans during the tournament.
He said when the embassies of the participating countries were contacted for the number of fans who would be attending the games, they could not give the actual number of fans, hence the decision by the ministry.
Before the commencement of the Ghana 2008 tournament, Prof. Fobih said academic activities in the selected schools were not going to be affected.
He said the necessary arrangements had been put in place to ensure that school work went on smoothly and that among the steps taken, the GES would add a few weeks to the academic calendar at the second-cycle level to make up for the time lost during the tournament.
According to the Ghana Education Service (GES), the schools whose accommodation facilities were to be used during the tournament were: Accra Academy, Presbyterian Boys’ SHS and Achimota School, all in Accra; Opoku Ware School, T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS and Kumasi Academy, all in Kumasi.
The Tamale SHS, Ghana SHS, Northern School of Business and Business SHS are those being used in Tamale. The rest of the schools from Sekondi-Takoradi are: Ghana Secondary/Technical School, Fijai SHS, St Mary’s SHS, Apowa, Saint John’s SHS and Sekondi College.

Ministry to disseminate policies to health workers

Page 43
Feb 7, 2008

THE Human Resource for Health Development (HRHD) Directorate of the Ministry of Health has embarked on an exercise to disseminate strategies and policies of the ministry to the members of the health sector throughout the country.
The aim is to ensure that every worker becomes conversant with the policies and strategies of the Ministry of Health under its five-year policy.
The Director of the HRHD at the Ministry of Health, Dr Yaw Antwi-Boasiako, who made this known in an interview, said once members of the health sector were abreast of the strategies and policies of the ministry, they would work to ensure their realisation.
“We want to ensure that whatever they do falls in line with the policies and strategies of the ministry. We don’t want the situation whereby members of the health sector would be doing things that are different from the ministry’s own programmes or activities,” he said.
He noted that under the dissemination programme, the country would be divided into two zones, northern and southern, to ensure that the exercise was effectively carried out.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the lack of such exercise in the past had greatly affected the policies and programmes of the ministry, hence the need for the current exercise. He added that “the dissemination programme would bring together all the stakeholders in the health sector”.
He added that once the exercise was carried out, it would go a long way to boost healthcare delivery in the country.
He said as part of efforts to ensure effective healthcare delivery, a Health Workforce Observatory, which would ensure good governance in human resource for health management in the country, had been set up.
Dr Antwi-Boasiako said the programme would strengthen the stewardship and regulation capacity of the ministry and its agencies as well as support and promote evidence-based human resource for health policy, among other things.
He stated that the ‘observatory’ would also strive to draw on the experiences of already established World Health Organisation (WHO) observatories on human resource for health in the African region as well as health systems in the European regions.
“Human resource for health is now recognised as the key element for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and scaling up health interventions especially in developing economies including Ghana,” he said.

Abolish payment of subsidy for SHS students

Page 29
Feb 4, 2008
THE Financial Controller of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Charles Otoo, has called for the abolition of the payment government subsidy for students of senior high schools.
He has suggested the introduction of bursaries for needy children, while the amounts spent on the subsidy be invested in infrastructure and other teaching and learning materials.
Mr Otoo explained to the Daily Graphic at the weekend that he was making the call because the alarming amounts being paid by the government as subsidy for students in senior high schools had become a drain on government resources.
He said apart from the fact that it would not be in the interest of the government to continue the payment of the subsidy, the reality on the ground was that in the near future, the government could not continue to make such huge payments.
Mr Otoo was of the view that if some parents could send their children to well-endowed schools at the basic level and paid very high fees, he did not see why such students should benefit from any government subsidy.
It was obvious that parents of such students did not need any support and therefore suggested that if the government should give any support at all, it should identify really needy students and not to engage in a blanket or wholesale payment of subsidy.
Mr Otoo mentioned increase in access, elimination of dropouts and support to the needy as justification and gave delays in the sourcing of funds, the low impact of the subsidy on the populace and the fact that the subsidy was only for students in public schools as challenges.
The Financial Controller noted that the key funding sources for the subsidy scheme had been the HIPC and the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GETFund).
It was anticipated that with the introduction of the Capitation Grant and its resultant increase in enrolment, the amount needed to support the students continuing to second cycle level would continue to increase, he stressed.
The government had been concerned about fees paid by students and in September 2001, it gave a directive that the level of fees to be charged should not exceed that of the previous level, even though approval was given for an increase in feeding fee from GH 23p to GH 30p per day.
The government, therefore, agreed to subsidise the difference between the old fees and that of the new fees with GH¢ 31.00 per student per annum.
The subsidies paid by the government cover general stationery, first aid, building maintenance, sports fee, cultural fee and sanitation. The rest are postage, reports of cumulative records, textbook user fee, practical fee and furniture maintenance.
Since 2002/2003 academic year however, payment of utilities to the schools have stopped, because of the government policy of paying directly to the utility companies.
So, for 2001/2002, for 270,224 students and at a rate of ¢310,000.00( GH¢ 31.00), the net amount paid was ¢83,769,440,000.00 or GH¢ 8,376,944.00.
Mr Otoo gave an analysis of the amounts paid by the government over the years of implementation as follows: For 2002/2003 the amount paid for 310,995 students was ¢70,284,870,000.00 or GH¢ 7,028,487.00 while for 2003/2004 an amount of ¢100,133,469,000.00 or GH¢ 10,013,346.90 was paid for 349,506 students.
For 2004/2005 the amount paid for 378,832 students was ¢123,991.713,600.00 or GH¢ 12,399,171.36. An amount of ¢137,762,206,500, equivalent to GH¢ 13,776,220.65, was paid for 420,905 students during 2005/2006.
The figures paid from 2002 to 2006 included those for utilities.
An official of the Education Ministry supported the call and said even though a number of officials in the education sector did not agree with the continuation of the payment of subsidy by the government, they thought the issue was debatable and therefore did not really want to come out with their views.
Others were of the view that if a parent was rich and therefore sent his child to a well-endowed basic school, that should not disqualify his child from benefiting from government subsidy.

Absorb lepers under NHIS

Page 30
Feb 2, 2008


THE President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, Agya Kweku Appiah, has urged the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) to absorb lepers as part of the vulnerable group under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
That, he said, was to ensure that they could access better medical care.
Agya Appiah, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Aduro Ye Bitters, made the call when he presented GH¢ 3,000 to the Weija Leprosarium in Accra.
He appealed to the government to ensure that the GH¢ 0.60 cedis allowance given to cured lepers was paid promptly and reviewed to reflect the current economic demands.
“I also plead with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other stakeholders to increase their societal education in order to integrate all cured lepers into the society and assist them to acquire vocations in order to give them economically independent”, he said.
Agya Appiah said the number of new cases globally had fallen by more than 40,019, and that during the past five years, new cases had decreased by 20 per cent.
“Unfortunately in Ghana, even though the MOH and the GHS have continued to adopt the multidrug therapy to reduce the prevalence, diagnosis and access to information is limited to the newly infected, thereby posing a threat to its cure and expected reduction”, he said.
The leader of the inmates, Madam Gladys Adobea, who thanked Agya Appiah for the donation, appealed to the government to honour its promise of increasing the allowance for cured lepers.

Review policy on BECE resit

30-01-08
Page 11

ABOUT 160,000 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates nationwide failed to qualify for placement into senior high schools (SHSs) and technical institutes last year. Some of the candidates made the aggregate 30 mark, but they could not be placed because they did not meet the requirements for placement into senior high schools and technical institutes.
Under the requirements for qualification and placement into SHSs or technical institutes, a candidate was expected to score not more than grade five in the four core subjects: English, Science, Mathematics and Social Studies. In addition, candidates were not supposed to score more than grade six in any other two subjects.
By the current system of re-sit at the basic educational level, a student has only two chances. Candidates are required to first re-write all the subjects they wrote and this should be done at the basic school they attended.
With the present competition for selection into SHSs, the current system of re-sit at the basic level would have to be looked at again and reviewed. This review, should have been part of the educational reform which kicked off in September last year. Today, thousands of candidates cannot re-sit the BECE due to the present system. They need to be given the opportunity like their counterparts at the secondary level.
Re-writing all the papers at the BECE level is discouraging and quite a task. Assuming a candidate scored seven and eight in English and Mathematics and scored one or two each in the rest of the subjects, it meant that with the current system s/he would have to re-write all the papers to qualify for placement.
The candidate must be made to re-write the subjects ( English and Mathematics) s/he did not do well in. After all, s/he needs to score not more than grade five in the two subjects to qualify for placement into the senior high school or technical institute of his/her choice.
On the issue of re-sitting or re-writing in one’s former school, this too needs to be changed. With the continuous assessment records of BECE candidates at the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), they should be made to re-write wherever they find themselves. A candidate should not be made to suffer unduly by travelling from one part of the country to another to re-write an examination. A family may decide to relocate to another area to survive, and so a child from such a family who did not do well in the BECE should be allowed to re-write the examination in any basic school in the locality the family may move to.
Although the BECE is both terminal and continuous, no impediments should be put in the way of those who want to continue to the SHS or technical institute. As young as BECE candidates are, they should not be made to stop schooling prematurely. It is time to look at the issue of re-writing or re-sitting the BECE again, since the competition for computer placement into SHSs and technical institutes is very keen.
As the Akans say, “Obiara nnim obrempon ahyease”; to wit, no one knows the beginning of a great person. Let’s create an enabling environment by having a level playing field for all those who were not able to pass their examination the first time to re-write. I’m sure some of the about 60,000 candidates who could not qualify for placement last year would love to re-sit the examination, but cannot do so under the current system.
The government pays part of the BECE registration of all candidates and reviewing the current system of re-sit would prevent a waste of money. The time to act is now. I am confident that the Education Ministry, the GES and other authorities will give this a critical look.

Give more opportunities to the disadvantaged

23-01-08
Page 11

THE Director of the Centre for Higher Education and Equity Research (CHEER) at the University of Sussex in the UK, Prof. Louise Morley, has stressed the need for higher institutions to give more opportunities to the disadvantaged in society.
That, she said, was to ensure equal access to higher education on the continent.
She was speaking on “Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard” at a national dissemination seminar in Accra.
It was aimed at disseminating part of the objectives of a three-year project, with a view to exploring factors that facilitated or impeded participation in higher education, and to examine the different approaches taken by state and private providers towards widening participation.
It was also aimed at interrogating universities about what they were doing in relation to poverty reduction and achievements of the Millennium Development Goals.
The project, funded by the Department For International Development (DFID), is to investigate interventions for widening participation in one public university and one private university in Ghana and Tanzania.
Prof Morley said looking at the countries on the continent, they tended to focus more on basic education, adding that higher education was equally important as it developed the expertise for wealth creation.
On the issue of gender, she said, in Africa, women were still under-represented in higher institutions unlike the UK and other parts of the world.
The Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Prof James Opare, said the findings of the project would be presented to policy-makers for consideration.
He said once higher education was given the needed attention, while opportunity was created for the disadvantaged, poverty would be reduced in the long run.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

$1 billion Resort for Winneba

22-01-08
Page 3

AS part of efforts to make Ghana a world tourism destination, Caribbean Atlantic Holdings Limited is constructing a $1billion lagoon resort in Winneba in the Central Region.
The Muni Lagoon Resort project, which will take about nine years to complete, is expected to boost tourism and provide employment opportunities for the people, especially the youth, in and around Winneba.
Some of the key features of the project are a beach resort, an African craft village, three Five-Star hotels to accommodate more than 3,000 people, bird sanctuaries, recreational centres, a church and a clinic.
Speaking at a presentation on the project, a former Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, underscored the need for the people in the area to embrace the project.
He said with the increase in population, and fishing being no longer attractive in the area, there was the need to look at other income-generating and wealth-creation methods for sustenance.
The Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, declared the government’s support for the project, adding that it would not support things that would destroy the country.
“The government will give the project its full backing,” he said.
The Minister of Public Sector Reforms, Mr Samuel Owusu Agyei, said the construction of the resort was bound to create jobs for the people, saying that with the Aboakyir Festival gaining international status, there was the need to provide more accommodation facilities to cater for the large number of foreigners who thronged the town during the festival.
The District Chief Executive for Awutu-Efutu-Senya, Mr Solomon Abam Quaye, said with Winneba now raised to a municipal status and no longer part of the Awutu-Efutu-Senya district, it meant that it would have to generate its own revenue for development activities.
The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, pledged the support of the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) to the project.
The Chairperson of Caribbean Atlantic Holdings Limited, Ms Ann Marie Charles De Silva, said the construction of the resort was not to destroy the traditions of the people of Winneba but rather boost it.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Atlantic Holdings Limited, Mr Edward Nimoh-Boateng, told journalists that the resort would help hasten the development of the town.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Academic work won't suffer-Fobih

18-01-08
Page 10

Academic work in the various schools which are being used as hostels for supporters and officials for the Ghana 2008 tournament which begins on Sunday, January 20, 2008, will not be affected, Prof Dominic Fobih, the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, has stated.
He said the necessary arrangements had been put in place to ensure that schoolwork went on smoothly and that among the steps taken, the Ghana Education Service (GES) would add a few weeks to the academic calendar at the second-cycle level to make up for the time lost during the tournament.
Prof Fobih indicated that as a result of the May/June West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the final-year students of the 16 affected schools were in school to prepare for their examinations, adding that students would be relocated temporarily in case there was the need to accommodate more soccer fans.
First and second-year students of some senior high schools (SHS) are on break as a result of the use of their facilities during Ghana 2008.
Some schools located in each of the four host cities are being used for the tournament.
The affected schools are: Accra Academy, Labone SHS, Presbyterian Boys’ SHS and Achimota School, all in Accra; Opoku Ware School, T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS and Kumasi Academy, all in Kumasi.
The Tamale SHS, Ghana SHS, Northern School of Business and Business SHS are those being used in Tamale, while Ghana Secondary/Technical School, Fijai SHS, St Mary’s SHS, Apowa, Saint John’s SHS and Sekondi College are the schools to be used in Sekondi/Takoradi.
Prof Fobih said there was the need to use the facilities of those schools to ensure that fans had places to lay their heads during the tournament, adding that fans needed to be comfortable as they enjoyed the tournament.
He gave the assurance that the period students would stay at home would not have any effect on their performance and charged parents to play the role expected of them to ensure that children used their time profitably.
“People are following the Ghana 2008 tournament closely to ensure that there is no hitch. It is the duty of everyone to ensure that it goes on smoothly,” he said.
Prof Fobih reminded Ghanaians to extend their usual hospitality to the guests to make their stay here a memorable one.
Accommodation facilities at three public universities — the University of Ghana, Legon, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Education (KNUST), Kumasi, and the University for Development Studies (UDS), Tamale — are also being used to host soccer fans during the tournament.
Apart from the accommodation facilities, the football fields of the universities are being used as training pitches for the participating countries. The pitches have been given a facelift to ensure that teams had the best of fields for training during the tournament.
The Public Relations Officer of the University of Cape Coast, Mr Jeff Onyame, said although the university was not part of the Ghana 2008 tournament, its halls of residence were being used as hostels for supporters.
He said by the time school re-opened on February 1, 2008, majority of the supporters would have left for students to occupy the halls of residence.

'Review portion of Poly Act'

18-01-08
Page 30

THE Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Kwame Dartey, has called for a review of the portion of the Polytechnic Act that says that polytechnics may award their own Higher National Diploma (HND).
According to him, the HND was a national certification that should be awarded by a body such as the National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations (NABPTEX).
In an interview with the Daily Graphic on the enactment of the Polytechnic Act, Mr Dartey agreed that NABPTEX should award the HND.
Section (5a) of the Polytechnic Act (Act 745, 2007) says that “a polytechnic may award HND accredited by the National Accreditation Board (NAB)”.
The NABPTEX, which regulates the conduct of polytechnic examinations in the country, currently awards the HND.
Sub-section 2 (2b) of the NABPTEX Act (Act 492, 1994) says that the board shall, “in consultation with the relevant polytechnics and professional institutions, conduct examinations and award national certificates and diplomas based on the result of the examinations”.
Mr Dartey said there would be a problem if each polytechnic was made to award its own HND, since not all the polytechnics in the country had the staff and facilities to run courses and award their own certificates.
As a result, he said, they would need an independent national body that would ensure that they had the same syllabi and wrote the same examinations supervised by a national body which would award the HND.
He said with respect to the award of degrees and other certification, the polytechnics should clear with the NAB before going ahead to issue them, adding that the board was responsible for the accreditation of both public and private institutions regarding the content and standard of their programmes.
Section 2 (1a) of the NAB Act (Act 744, 2007) says that the “board shall determine the programmes and requirements for the proper operation of an institution and the maintenance of acceptable levels of academic or professional standards in the institution in consultation with that institution”.
With the passage of the Polytechnic Act, it is unclear whether the polytechnics are going to award their own HNDs or NABPTEX will continue to award them.

Youth advised to shun company of social deviants

12-01-08
Page 18

The National President of the Youth Ambassadors of the Christ Evangelical Mission, Mr Bernard Asamany, has called on the youth in the country to shun the company of people who would like to use them as couriers of narcotic drugs as that could ruin their lives.
He also advised the youth not to engage in promiscuous lives during the Ghana 2008 football tournament.
He said “although most visitors who would be patronising the event may be looking strong and healthy, they are also likely to be HIV positive”.
Mr Asamany, who said this in a New Year message to members of the Youth Ambassadors of the Christ Evangelical Mission, asked young Christian youth not to get involved in activities that sought to disrupt or cause confusion in the run-up to the general election in December.
“Let us all be mindful that this is our beloved country and any upheaval would only succeed in retarding the socio-economic and democratic development achieved so far. The successes accrued over the years can be eroded if we allow indiscipline, lack of respect for the elderly, gossip, hatred, sexual promiscuity and other worldly things to engulf us as Christians,” Mr Asamany stated.

'Set up board for evaluation and monitoring'

21-01-08
Page 44


MONITORING and evaluation in all aspects of business activities must be taken seriously to ensure high standard of service delivery.
The Director of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Dr David S. Ameyaw, has therefore called for the establishment of a national governing board for monitoring and evaluation practices.
That, he noted, would ensure that standards were maintained by monitoring and evaluation professionals in all fields.
“The body will supervise the production and dissemination of products and services to support the profession. It will serve as a governance body and will systematically provide oversight responsibility for the conduct of monitoring and evaluation practices at all levels,” he said.
These were contained in a paper on “Professionalising Monitoring and Evaluation as a Specialised Discipline in Ghana” presented on his behalf at a programme organised by the Ghana M & E Forum in Accra on Tuesday.
It aimed at sharing professional insights into the art and practice of monitoring and evaluation and advocating the effective use of monitoring and evaluation.
Dr Ameyaw stressed the need for the development and maintenance of national monitoring and evaluation standards, adding that “evidence-based monitoring and evaluation is being proposed in the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II as a national monitoring and evaluation standard”.
He suggested the development of a quality assurance and improvement programme for monitoring and evaluation, saying that the national monitoring and evaluation governing board could provide guidance and scorecards to government institutions, ministries, department and agencies (MDAs), as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
He said there should be an aggressive push towards the establishment of a professional identity and credibility for monitoring and evaluation in senior management structures and organisational decision and policy-making processes.
Dr Ameyaw indicated that monitoring and evaluation was a crucial management accountability tool and like all tools used by progressive public and private management agencies, it needed to be seen and perceived as a profession that had standard methodologies among other things.
The President of the African Evaluation Association, Dr Sulley Gariba, who delivered a paper on “Theory-based Approach to Evaluation”, underscored the need for a balance between monitoring and evaluation practices.
The Country Director of Innovations for Poverty Action, Mr Justin Oliver, said an evaluation should describe what actually happened as a result of a programme or policy.

NABPTEX raises concern over issue of HND by polytechnics

15-01-08
Front page

INSTEAD of strengthening the diplomas awarded by the country’s polytechnics, the recent passage of the Polytechnic Act (Act 745, 2007) appears to have brought to the fore the problems likely to be created by the act.
With the passage of the act, it is unclear whether the polytechnics are going to award their own Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) or the National Board for Professional and Technical Examinations (NABPTEX) would continue to award them.
Section (5a) of the Polytechnic Act says that “a Polytechnic may award HNDs accredited by the National Accreditation Board (NAB)”. This is in spite of the fact that NABPTEX, which regulates the conduct of polytechnic examination in the country, still awards the HND.
The Executive Secretary of NABPTEX, Mr Ben Antwi-Boasiako, described the section of the Polytechnic Act that said that polytechnics “may” award HNDs as dangerous.
The Rector of the Accra Polytechnic, Professor Ralph Asabre, told the Daily Graphic that the HND was a national programme which should be awarded by a national body.
“Since it is a national programme, it is supposed to be awarded by a national body,” he said, and stated that individual polytechnics could not award it.
“I think there was a mistake somewhere,” he said.
With the coming into force of the Polytechnic Act, the country would have 11 different Higher “National” Diplomas, as each of the 10 polytechnics would award its own HND, in addition to the HND awarded by NABPTEX, a situation that Mr Antwi-Boasiako believed could lead to standards being compromised.
Subsection 2 (2b) of the NABPTEX Act (Act 492, 1994) says that the board shall, “in consultation with the relevant polytechnics and professional institutions, conduct examination and award national certificates and diplomas based on the result of the examinations”.
“We are not against the polytechnics awarding their own degrees, diplomas and certificates; what we are against is the polytechnics awarding the HND,” he explained, and said the word “national” in the HND meant that there should be a national body like NABPTEX awarding the HND.
He said the board made several attempts to correct the provision on the award of Higher “National” Diploma by polytechnics in the bill before its passage but said having being passed without that correction, it meant that “we will have Accra Polytechnic HND, Takoradi Polytechnic HND, Kumasi Polytechnic HND and so on”.
Mr Antwi-Boasiako indicated that NABPTEX had attained international recognition for the HND through its primary membership with the International Association for Educational Assessment, a body recognised by UNESCO and which has collaborated with industry and other stakeholders in the country for the recognition of the HND.
“We have been able to put the HND on a higher pedestal. If we ask polytechnics to issue different HNDs, there will be a problem,” he said, adding that with the different HNDs there would be different standards.
According to him, the board, through its quality assurance measures, such as moderating questions, monitoring examinations, as well as verifying marked scripts, ensured that standards were uniform among polytechnics.
Mr Antwi-Boasiako said the board was in no way an impediment to the development of the polytechnics but rather facilitated polytechnic education, saying, for example, that it conducted test item writing workshops for all the polytechnics to ensure that the lecturers set questions that were of higher standards befitting the status of polytechnic education.
He emphasised that as a result of the high turnover of polytechnic lecturers, the board had to keep on holding the test item writing workshops to keep new lecturers abreast of the appropriate standards.
“NABPTEX is not an impediment to the development of the polytechnics. Their problem is poor conditions of service, lack of equipment and facilities,” he indicated, and urged the polytechnics to strive to improve the conditions of service of their staff and facilities.
Mr Antwi-Boasiako said NABPTEX was set up to administer schemes of examination not only for polytechnics but also the professional bodies and all non-university tertiary institutions, including private ones, adding that it would continue with its mandate.

Tata Beverages Company honours workers

21-01-08
Page 3
TATA Beverages Company Limited has honoured 13 workers who distinguished themselves last year with a call on the government to adopt measures that will reduce the cost of producing local products.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Mr Frank Ayim Damptey, who made the call, noted that “our cost of production and numerous taxes are very high making the prices of our products higher than the imported ones”.
“I still believe that the government should protect local industries from the influence of products which are manufactured abroad,” he said.
The awards ceremony which was the fourth saw Emmanuel Aboagye being crowned the overall best worker for the year 2007.
Mr Damptey said in spite of the fact that last year was full of challenges with increases in the prices of raw materials, the company was able to make progress.
He said a visit to the market revealed a pathetic sight with the display of foreign drinks to the disadvantage of locally-manufactured drinks.
He indicated that the company’s products — One Touch Aromatic Bitters, Tatapack and Tropical Ginger Milk — had made great impact in the country and the other West African countries like Togo and Nigeria.
He said the company had three products awaiting certification by the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) for the production of carbonated soft drinks and a gin product.
He commended workers of the company for their dedication and hard work over the years, adding that “we could not have been where we are this day if you had not put in your best”.
The Deputy Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Commodore Albert Addison, charged the workers to remain committed to their work.

Friday, January 11, 2008

WAEC: It's all over For BECE manual registration

Page: Frontpage, Jan 8, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Bonney
THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has phased out the manual registration of candidates for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)
Consequently, more than 300,000 junior high school (JHS) candidates who are to take the examination in April this year have been successfully registered electronically.
The Head of the National Examination Administration Department of WAEC, Mr Kweku Nyamekye-Aidoo, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said the computer registration or “batch registration” system had been introduced to, among other things, avoid the errors that were associated with the manual process.
He explained that computer registration was different from online registration, which required an Internet facility, adding that with the computer registration, a school needed a computer with a CD Rom.
He said with the introduction of computer registration, the use of pieces of paper, which made the registration process cumbersome, had been reduced, saying that “once paper work is reduced, there is more efficiency”.
Mr Nyamekye-Aidoo said the registration of the 2008 candidates had so far been successful, in spite of the initial fear that there would be problems as a result of the lack of computer facilities in some basic schools.
“We have cleared the fear of the unknown,” he said.
According to him, before the registration process, schools were asked to indicate whether they had computer facilities or not, after which the Ghana Education Service (GES) was duly notified.
He said the GES then asked the schools that did not have access to computers to use nearby senior high schools (SHS) and district assembly facilities for the registration.
Mr Nyamekye-Aidoo said apart from the reduction in the use of paper, computer registration would also help reduce errors, such as improper shading done by some candidates in the course of filling their BECE registration forms.
He said computer registration would help in the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), as candidates would be able to make more accurate selections, unless they themselves provided the wrong information.
He said under computer registration, each school was provided with three CDs for the registration exercise and that one CD contained the software for the registration, while another one was used to capture registration materials, photographs, among other things, and the third one for the submission of continuous assessment scores.
Mr Nyamekye-Aidoo appealed to schools to desist from registering unqualified candidates, adding that the BECE was for candidates who had gone through nine years of basic education and had their continuous assessment records or scores available.
He said WAEC, on its part, would remain vigilant to ensure that only qualified candidates wrote the examination.

Health Ministry proposes extension of retiring age

Page 20 (Spread), 11/01/08

Story: Emmanuel Bonney
THE Ministry of Health has proposed an increase in the retirement age for health workers to address shortfalls in staffing at health institutions.
In its document, “Human Resource for Health Policies and Strategies (2007-2011)”, the ministry explained that from experience, it could be observed that most retirees were active and their services could be utilised, and noted that since it took a long period to train others to replace the retirees, it was important certain measures were taken to address the possible human resource gaps that their retirement might create in the health sector.
It noted that “the current health workforce is aged and very soon a greater proportion of health workers, especially from the midwifery and medical assistants groups, may retire from public service”.
“This policy serves as a machinery to enable the health sector to advocate government to extend the retirement age of active health workers so that their services could be extended whilst concrete plans would be instituted to prepare those who are due for pension,” he said.
The document said the ministry would facilitate the development of specific job descriptions that matched worker remuneration for all health employees.
It said available records in the public sector indicated that job descriptions for the various categories of health workers were sometimes not in place in some health institutions making it difficult for some staff to understand their roles and responsibilities.
As a result, it said, the achievement of health goals were negatively affected, adding that “this policy, therefore, enforces the development of job descriptions that clearly set out objectives, responsibilities, lines of accountability and authority for all jobs in the health sector”.
The ministry, it indicated, would ensure fairness in promotions for all categories of staff, since promotion in the past had been linked to long service with little recognition for performance.
“Promotion to a higher level or grade has, therefore, become automatic with length of service. This did not promote workplace performance and accountability. This policy, however, intends to ensure that there is fairness and objectivity in promotions for all categories of health workers and that promotions would be performance-related,” it explained among other things.
The document said the ministry would ensure equitable distribution of health professionals in the health sector, adding that a major human resource for health challenge in the country was mal-distribution of health workers which was highly skewed towards the urban areas.
It said that was affecting healthcare delivery in certain parts of the country as some health workers were overburdened.
It said the ministry would institute a comprehensive performance management system in all sectors of healthcare delivery, and that to address the current human resource for health challenges for better health outcomes, there was the need for a well-performing workforce that was responsive.
The document said the Human Resource Policies for the health sector spanning from 2007-2011 were targeted at solving the existing human resource challenges in the country taking into account global human resources for health issues.