04-23-08
Page 31
THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof Dominic Fobih, yesterday launched the third international conference on Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Development, Education and Training to be hosted by the country next month.
The annual event, which was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya, last year, will be attended by about 1,800 guests and will be held from May 28-30, 2008.
Addressing the press in Accra, Prof Fobih said the sharing of ideas, best practices and lessons learnt in both developing and industrialised countries would strengthen the emerging Ghanaian community of ICT practitioners, as well as forge co-operation between African and European stakeholders.
He said the conference, which will focus on developing e-learning capacities in Africa, would bring high quality expertise and knowledge in a cost-effective way to the country through mobilising more than 300 African and international speakers.
“The magnitude of the event and its features will provide an unprecedented opportunity for hosting the country’s professionals and stakeholders for benchmarking, learning, sharing and networking, thus strengthening the numerous educational technology initiatives and projects,” he said.
Prof Fobih said in spite of the numerous benefits of e-learning, there were some challenges, including limited access to ICT hardware, inadequate infrastructure, and training of teachers and ICT co-ordinators.
The Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, Ms Dorothy Gordon, who outlined the structure of the conference, said there would be four plenary sessions, 66 sessions in 11 parallel conference stands, 48 demonstrations and best practices, 13 workshops and a number of new features.
She said the event, which will be organised in conjunction with International Conferences, Workshops and Exhibitions(ICWE) organisation and Hoffmann and Reif Consultancy, would seek to demystify the concept of e-learning.
She said pre-conference workshops would offer participants the opportunity to gain from leading experts knowledge and insight into a variety of specialised fields.
The Co-ordinator of the ICT session at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Rev Emmanuel Dadebo, said the government had mapped out a number of strategies in the deployment of ICT in the country.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
No imposition of religion-GES
March 18, 2008
Page 48
THE Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, has stated that no religion is forced on any student in educational institutions in the country.
According to him, faith-based schools were not allowed to impose their religion on students who did not believe in such religion.
He told the Daily Graphic that schools were governed by rules and regulations which were expected to be complied with by every student, adding that there were also “school gatherings which are compulsory for all students”.
Reacting to the incident in which a final-year student of the Adisadel College in Cape Coast jumped to death, Mr Bannerman-Mensah said schools had their gatherings in all the faith-based schools.
He said some of those gatherings were not for religious purposes, but used to talk about morals which permeated all religions and noted that “many of the schools have such gatherings”.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah indicated that the situation where there was a worship in a particular religion, those who did not believe in that religion were not forced to be part of the worship, and that all such students were supposed to be in one room to ensure that nobody roamed about.
He described the incident at Adisadel College as unfortunate, and said the housemaster was only trying to enforce school regulations which were supposed to be followed by all.
He said the headmaster told him that there was an evening worship on Sunday and had information that some of the students were hiding in the new building from which the student jumped.
The headmaster said the housemaster had gone there to ensure that the right thing was done.
“I’m sorry that this has happened,” he said, and expressed condolences to the bereaved family.
Page 48
THE Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, has stated that no religion is forced on any student in educational institutions in the country.
According to him, faith-based schools were not allowed to impose their religion on students who did not believe in such religion.
He told the Daily Graphic that schools were governed by rules and regulations which were expected to be complied with by every student, adding that there were also “school gatherings which are compulsory for all students”.
Reacting to the incident in which a final-year student of the Adisadel College in Cape Coast jumped to death, Mr Bannerman-Mensah said schools had their gatherings in all the faith-based schools.
He said some of those gatherings were not for religious purposes, but used to talk about morals which permeated all religions and noted that “many of the schools have such gatherings”.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah indicated that the situation where there was a worship in a particular religion, those who did not believe in that religion were not forced to be part of the worship, and that all such students were supposed to be in one room to ensure that nobody roamed about.
He described the incident at Adisadel College as unfortunate, and said the housemaster was only trying to enforce school regulations which were supposed to be followed by all.
He said the headmaster told him that there was an evening worship on Sunday and had information that some of the students were hiding in the new building from which the student jumped.
The headmaster said the housemaster had gone there to ensure that the right thing was done.
“I’m sorry that this has happened,” he said, and expressed condolences to the bereaved family.
WAEC introduces new rules
March 19, 2008
Page 31
THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has introduced two new rules to guide the conduct of examinations.
The rules, which would take effect from next year, would be applied to both Basic Education Certificate Examination, May/June West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the November/December WASSCE.
The Deputy Registrar and Head of the International Examination Department of WAEC, Mr Charles Eguridu, announced this at the 2008 WAEC Day Students Symposium in Accra on Monday.
It was on the theme: “Improving Educational Assessment Processes Through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Current Trends in Examination Malpractices”.
Mr Eguridu said where a candidate, contrary to guidelines, failed to write his or her name on an answer booklet before the commencement of an examination, the candidate’s subject result shall be withheld pending cancellation by the appointment committee to the council.
Secondly, he said, where the candidate shaded with ink instead of pencil, the candidate’s subject result shall be withheld pending cancellation by the appointment committee to the council.
The Head of the Security Printing Department of WAEC, Rev Nii Nnai Ollenu, reminded students to abide by examination rules to avoid being sanctioned.
He mentioned some cases of malpractices as taking foreign materials to examination hall, collusion and insulting invigilators, and attributed the problem to inadequate preparation, negative peer influence, and the quest to uphold the status of schools.
He said once a student was caught, the implications included the cancellation of results, inconvenience of rewriting the examination, as well as the financial implication of re-registering for the examination.
An Assistant Registrar, Mr Ben Owusu Ofori, said the world had been taken over by ICT, which the council had adopted for test administration.
According to him, the manual processing of registration, which took a lot of man hours, had given way to on-line registration, saying that “today, registration has come to the doorsteps of candidates”.
He also mentioned the checking of results on the Internet, among other things, and urged students to make maximum use of ICT facilities, and not abuse them or use them for fraudulent activities.
In a presentation, Mr John Avande of the Computer Services Division, said for instance, the use of ICT had contributed greatly to the selection of quality objective questions which was done through the use of item analysis report to select questions.
“With the growing numbers of candidates, the use of Information Technology helps to process the large volumes of data faster. The latest method of educational assessment is being used by TOEFL. This method has gone a very long way to eliminate the canker of leakages and malpractices in examinations,” he said.
Page 31
THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has introduced two new rules to guide the conduct of examinations.
The rules, which would take effect from next year, would be applied to both Basic Education Certificate Examination, May/June West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the November/December WASSCE.
The Deputy Registrar and Head of the International Examination Department of WAEC, Mr Charles Eguridu, announced this at the 2008 WAEC Day Students Symposium in Accra on Monday.
It was on the theme: “Improving Educational Assessment Processes Through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Current Trends in Examination Malpractices”.
Mr Eguridu said where a candidate, contrary to guidelines, failed to write his or her name on an answer booklet before the commencement of an examination, the candidate’s subject result shall be withheld pending cancellation by the appointment committee to the council.
Secondly, he said, where the candidate shaded with ink instead of pencil, the candidate’s subject result shall be withheld pending cancellation by the appointment committee to the council.
The Head of the Security Printing Department of WAEC, Rev Nii Nnai Ollenu, reminded students to abide by examination rules to avoid being sanctioned.
He mentioned some cases of malpractices as taking foreign materials to examination hall, collusion and insulting invigilators, and attributed the problem to inadequate preparation, negative peer influence, and the quest to uphold the status of schools.
He said once a student was caught, the implications included the cancellation of results, inconvenience of rewriting the examination, as well as the financial implication of re-registering for the examination.
An Assistant Registrar, Mr Ben Owusu Ofori, said the world had been taken over by ICT, which the council had adopted for test administration.
According to him, the manual processing of registration, which took a lot of man hours, had given way to on-line registration, saying that “today, registration has come to the doorsteps of candidates”.
He also mentioned the checking of results on the Internet, among other things, and urged students to make maximum use of ICT facilities, and not abuse them or use them for fraudulent activities.
In a presentation, Mr John Avande of the Computer Services Division, said for instance, the use of ICT had contributed greatly to the selection of quality objective questions which was done through the use of item analysis report to select questions.
“With the growing numbers of candidates, the use of Information Technology helps to process the large volumes of data faster. The latest method of educational assessment is being used by TOEFL. This method has gone a very long way to eliminate the canker of leakages and malpractices in examinations,” he said.
Disbursement under LEAP starts today
March 19, 2008
Page 48
ABOUT 8,350 individuals from 1,654 households will between today and tomorrow receive their grants under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
Each beneficiary would be given GH¢16 for a two-month period while the next payment will be made in May.
The National Co-ordinator of LEAP, Mr Lawrence Ofori-Addo, made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday.
Beneficiaries in Bawku will, however, not receive the grants as a result of the conflict in the area.
Mr Ofori-Addo said the grants would be disbursed to beneficiaries in Bawku once there was normalcy.
He said the LEAP Secretariat had completed the data verification of the beneficiaries and that the beneficiaries had also been issued with identification cards, adding that the payment would be done through Ghana Post and the district offices of the Department of Social Welfare.
LEAP is part of the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), a social grant which seeks to provide funds on conditional basis to extremely poor households with vulnerable orphans. The core feature of the programme is direct cash transfer to categories of poor people.
Mr Ofori-Addo said three other areas — Lawra, Ga West and the Tema Municipality, where errors were identified on the data of some beneficiaries — will have to wait until they were corrected, stating that “as soon as they are corrected they will be added to the list”.
“Our officials are currently contacting the beneficiaries and arranging the payment points. We don’t expect long queues, since everything would be smooth,” he said
Mr Ofori-Addo indicated that the five-year programme, which was at the pre-pilot stage, was expected to cover 164,370 households under the period.
Ninety-two households will benefit in Dangbe West, 43 in the Tema Municipal area, 45 in Ga West, 73 in the Cape Coast Municipal area, 74 in the Agona District, 84 in the Assin North District, 99 in Nzema East, 94 in Asuogyaman District and 86 in the Manya Krobo District.
The rest are 93 households in Yilo Krobo District, 115 in New Juabeng, 74 in Fanteakwa, 98 in Kwahu West, 97 in Akuapem South, 89 in Ketu South, 70 in Kumasi Metro, 98 in Obuasi, 104 in the Techiman Municipality, 93 in the Bole District and 31 in the Lawra District.
The Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 5) which was conducted in 2005 and 2006 indicated that 41 per cent of Ghanaians were poor and out of that figure, 18.2 per cent were considered extremely poor.
Page 48
ABOUT 8,350 individuals from 1,654 households will between today and tomorrow receive their grants under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme.
Each beneficiary would be given GH¢16 for a two-month period while the next payment will be made in May.
The National Co-ordinator of LEAP, Mr Lawrence Ofori-Addo, made this known to the Daily Graphic yesterday.
Beneficiaries in Bawku will, however, not receive the grants as a result of the conflict in the area.
Mr Ofori-Addo said the grants would be disbursed to beneficiaries in Bawku once there was normalcy.
He said the LEAP Secretariat had completed the data verification of the beneficiaries and that the beneficiaries had also been issued with identification cards, adding that the payment would be done through Ghana Post and the district offices of the Department of Social Welfare.
LEAP is part of the National Social Protection Strategy (NSPS), a social grant which seeks to provide funds on conditional basis to extremely poor households with vulnerable orphans. The core feature of the programme is direct cash transfer to categories of poor people.
Mr Ofori-Addo said three other areas — Lawra, Ga West and the Tema Municipality, where errors were identified on the data of some beneficiaries — will have to wait until they were corrected, stating that “as soon as they are corrected they will be added to the list”.
“Our officials are currently contacting the beneficiaries and arranging the payment points. We don’t expect long queues, since everything would be smooth,” he said
Mr Ofori-Addo indicated that the five-year programme, which was at the pre-pilot stage, was expected to cover 164,370 households under the period.
Ninety-two households will benefit in Dangbe West, 43 in the Tema Municipal area, 45 in Ga West, 73 in the Cape Coast Municipal area, 74 in the Agona District, 84 in the Assin North District, 99 in Nzema East, 94 in Asuogyaman District and 86 in the Manya Krobo District.
The rest are 93 households in Yilo Krobo District, 115 in New Juabeng, 74 in Fanteakwa, 98 in Kwahu West, 97 in Akuapem South, 89 in Ketu South, 70 in Kumasi Metro, 98 in Obuasi, 104 in the Techiman Municipality, 93 in the Bole District and 31 in the Lawra District.
The Ghana Living Standard Survey (GLSS 5) which was conducted in 2005 and 2006 indicated that 41 per cent of Ghanaians were poor and out of that figure, 18.2 per cent were considered extremely poor.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
GES pleads with Northern CHASS
Page 3
March 8, 2008
THE Ghana Education Service (GES) has appealed to heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions to exercise restraint as the service takes steps to get the Scholarship Secretariat to release the feeding grant for second-cycle schools as early as possible.
According to the acting Head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Mr Paul Kofi Krampa, “It is the Scholarship Secretariat that is in charge, not the GES.”
“The feeding grants come from the Scholarship Secretariat. The secretariat also receives the money from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund),” he said, adding that the service could only appeal for the release of the money to ensure smooth academic activities in the schools.
He also appealed to food suppliers to the schools to exercise restraint and co-operate with the heads as they tried to secure funds to settle their outstanding debts.
Mr Krampa said the suppliers should continue to assist the schools, since they had worked together over the years, saying that that was the time to be close to the heads.
The heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions had said in a statement that they would be compelled to send home first and second-year students by Thursday, March 13, 2008 if full grants of the first and second terms were not released.
They explained that since the beginning of the academic year in September last year, only 40 per cent of the feeding grant for second and final-year students had been released, while nothing had been received for first-year students for the same term.
“The second term started in January 2008 and as of now we are in the eighth week, yet no funds have been released for the feeding of students in all forms,” they further stated.
The heads alleged that even though they had written letters to the sector ministry, the Ghana Education Service and the three regional ministers in the north on their plight, they were yet to receive the needed responses on the release of the grants.
March 8, 2008
THE Ghana Education Service (GES) has appealed to heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions to exercise restraint as the service takes steps to get the Scholarship Secretariat to release the feeding grant for second-cycle schools as early as possible.
According to the acting Head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Mr Paul Kofi Krampa, “It is the Scholarship Secretariat that is in charge, not the GES.”
“The feeding grants come from the Scholarship Secretariat. The secretariat also receives the money from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund),” he said, adding that the service could only appeal for the release of the money to ensure smooth academic activities in the schools.
He also appealed to food suppliers to the schools to exercise restraint and co-operate with the heads as they tried to secure funds to settle their outstanding debts.
Mr Krampa said the suppliers should continue to assist the schools, since they had worked together over the years, saying that that was the time to be close to the heads.
The heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions had said in a statement that they would be compelled to send home first and second-year students by Thursday, March 13, 2008 if full grants of the first and second terms were not released.
They explained that since the beginning of the academic year in September last year, only 40 per cent of the feeding grant for second and final-year students had been released, while nothing had been received for first-year students for the same term.
“The second term started in January 2008 and as of now we are in the eighth week, yet no funds have been released for the feeding of students in all forms,” they further stated.
The heads alleged that even though they had written letters to the sector ministry, the Ghana Education Service and the three regional ministers in the north on their plight, they were yet to receive the needed responses on the release of the grants.
WASSCE Nov/Dec candidates doubt grades
Page 11
March 7, 2008
SOME candidates who wrote the November/December West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) last year were given grades in subjects they did not register for. Consequently, they have expressed doubts in the entire grades given to them.
The results slips of the candidates made available to the Daily Graphic had grades of subjects they did not register for.
For instance, one of them who wrote the examination in Accra had his examination centre as Wa. Aside that, he was given grades in Typewriting, Fante and French but he did not register for those subjects.
He said when he took the matter to the West African Examinations Council WAEC), one of the officers cancelled the Typewriting, Fante and French subjects and substituted them with Social Studies, Integrated Science and Physics which were the subjects he registered for.
According to him, he was asked to re-check the Internet for the corrected results. “I went back to check if what was written by the official (Social Studies, Integrated Science and Physics) were effected on the internet, a situation which raised doubts over the results.?????
A parent, whose daughter was affected, said from the mistakes made by WAEC, she did not believe that the grades given to her child were the true reflection of her performance.
She, therefore, called for a re-marking of the papers of those who were affected, adding that WAEC should also apologise for the embarrassment it had caused.
When contacted, the acting Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Mr Frederick Selby, said wrong codes were inadvertently used for the placing of the results on the Internet on Sunday, the day the results were released.
“Immediately our attention was drawn to it, early Monday morning we blocked the net and the corrections were made,” he explained, adding that those who went to the net before “our attention was drawn to the problem had the wrong subjects”.
He noted that after the corrections were made, the net was opened for candidates to access their results.
Mr Selby said the results were credible and nobody had any cause to doubt them, saying that they were the true reflection of the performance of candidates.
“The results are very credible,” he assured candidates.
March 7, 2008
SOME candidates who wrote the November/December West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) last year were given grades in subjects they did not register for. Consequently, they have expressed doubts in the entire grades given to them.
The results slips of the candidates made available to the Daily Graphic had grades of subjects they did not register for.
For instance, one of them who wrote the examination in Accra had his examination centre as Wa. Aside that, he was given grades in Typewriting, Fante and French but he did not register for those subjects.
He said when he took the matter to the West African Examinations Council WAEC), one of the officers cancelled the Typewriting, Fante and French subjects and substituted them with Social Studies, Integrated Science and Physics which were the subjects he registered for.
According to him, he was asked to re-check the Internet for the corrected results. “I went back to check if what was written by the official (Social Studies, Integrated Science and Physics) were effected on the internet, a situation which raised doubts over the results.?????
A parent, whose daughter was affected, said from the mistakes made by WAEC, she did not believe that the grades given to her child were the true reflection of her performance.
She, therefore, called for a re-marking of the papers of those who were affected, adding that WAEC should also apologise for the embarrassment it had caused.
When contacted, the acting Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Mr Frederick Selby, said wrong codes were inadvertently used for the placing of the results on the Internet on Sunday, the day the results were released.
“Immediately our attention was drawn to it, early Monday morning we blocked the net and the corrections were made,” he explained, adding that those who went to the net before “our attention was drawn to the problem had the wrong subjects”.
He noted that after the corrections were made, the net was opened for candidates to access their results.
Mr Selby said the results were credible and nobody had any cause to doubt them, saying that they were the true reflection of the performance of candidates.
“The results are very credible,” he assured candidates.
Minister orders release of funds for northern schools
Page 48
March 11, 2008
THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof. Dominic Fobih, has directed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to immediately secure funds from other sources for release to the Scholarship Secretariat for schools in the three northern regions.
That, he said, was to ensure smooth academic activities on the various campuses until Parliament gave approval to the GETFund budget for the year after which the funds secured would be refunded.
Prof. Fobih, who made this known in an interview, said Parliament was expected to discuss the matter either today or tomorrow, after which approval would be given.
Heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions have said they would be compelled to send home first and second-year students by Thursday, March 13, 2008 if full grants of the first and second terms were not released.
They explained that since the beginning of the academic year in September, last year, only 40 per cent of the feeding grant for second and final-year students had been released, while nothing had been received for first-year students for the same term.
However, Prof. Fobih was quick to add that the moneys were not feeding grants, since it would have affected other senior high schools in the country, adding that “this is a special scholarship to students of northern extraction”.
He explained that the money was part of the GETFund’s allocation to the Scholarship Secretariat, which disbursed it to schools of the beneficiaries.
Following the threat of sending students home until the funds were released, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has appealed to the heads to exercise restraint as steps were being taken to get the grants released.
The heads of schools in the northern regions had alleged that even though they had written letters to the sector ministry, the GES and the three regional ministers in northern Ghana on their plight, they were yet to receive the needed responses on the release of the grants.
The GES, however, said the release of the grants should be done by the Scholarship Secretariat and not by the service.
March 11, 2008
THE Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Prof. Dominic Fobih, has directed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to immediately secure funds from other sources for release to the Scholarship Secretariat for schools in the three northern regions.
That, he said, was to ensure smooth academic activities on the various campuses until Parliament gave approval to the GETFund budget for the year after which the funds secured would be refunded.
Prof. Fobih, who made this known in an interview, said Parliament was expected to discuss the matter either today or tomorrow, after which approval would be given.
Heads of second-cycle schools in the three northern regions have said they would be compelled to send home first and second-year students by Thursday, March 13, 2008 if full grants of the first and second terms were not released.
They explained that since the beginning of the academic year in September, last year, only 40 per cent of the feeding grant for second and final-year students had been released, while nothing had been received for first-year students for the same term.
However, Prof. Fobih was quick to add that the moneys were not feeding grants, since it would have affected other senior high schools in the country, adding that “this is a special scholarship to students of northern extraction”.
He explained that the money was part of the GETFund’s allocation to the Scholarship Secretariat, which disbursed it to schools of the beneficiaries.
Following the threat of sending students home until the funds were released, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has appealed to the heads to exercise restraint as steps were being taken to get the grants released.
The heads of schools in the northern regions had alleged that even though they had written letters to the sector ministry, the GES and the three regional ministers in northern Ghana on their plight, they were yet to receive the needed responses on the release of the grants.
The GES, however, said the release of the grants should be done by the Scholarship Secretariat and not by the service.
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