‘Blame teachers also for falling standards in education’
The Headmistress of Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast, Mrs Betty Djokoto, has said the falling standards in education in the country should not be blamed on students alone but on teachers as well.
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She said the performance of students was also contingent on how they were managed and taught by teachers.
Mrs Djokoto was speaking at the opening of a five-day staff development programme of the school in Kumasi.
The capacity building programme, which is on the broad theme: ‘The importance of measurement, assessment and appraisal in the teacher’s work,’ is to among others, develop the capacities of the teachers in using the appropriate tools in assessing the students correctly in order not to jeopardise their future.
The programme which was initiated 11 years ago, is said to have contributed to the maintenance of the high standards of the school, resulting in it producing the top best three candidates in last year’s West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE ) in West Africa.
Targets for teachers
The school expects to set new standards through different targets for teachers to produce transformational leaders whose impact should transcend Ghana.
Mrs Betty Djokoto pointed out that the skills and capacity of the teacher had a direct impact on the performance of students.
Turning her attention to the theme of the workshop, she said, teaching was becoming more and more complex in recent times which made proper assessment and evaluation crucial to the sustainability and survival of education.
A research fellow at the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration of the University of Cape Coast, Dr Alfred Ampah-Mensah, who also addressed the participants, said teachers should focus also on the need for students to learn while teaching.
He said teachers tended to focus too much on teaching and paid less attention to the learning process.
