Prioritise education in disbursement of DACF — Assemblies told
Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been asked to prioritise education in their disbursement of the district assemblies common fund (DACF).
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The Education Minister, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, said it was important to make sure that significant proportion of the money was used to improve school infrastructure.
They must provide structures and other support systems, to remove levies on schoolchildren so that kids from poor homes are not denied access to education.
Development of education
She was addressing a two-day workshop organised by the ministry in Kumasi to discuss the development of education.
It brought together metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) from across the country and district directors of education.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang reminded the MMDCEs that as chairpersons of the district education oversight committees, they had a pivotal role to play in the management and delivery of education.
She repeated the government’s commitment to the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme - to protect the right of every Ghanaian child to have full access to basic and secondary education.
Promoting education
She made reference to the Ghana Partnership for Education Grant under which resources were made available to schools to complement the Capitation Grant and said that showed how serious they were about promoting education.
The minister used the occasion to draw attention to the need to strengthen supervision for effective use of the contact hours and discourage the holding of extra classes.
She called on teachers to give their maximum efforts to improve students’ performance and warned against absenteeism.
Dr Clement Adamba of the School of Education and Leadership, University of Ghana, Legon, noted that the Capitation Grant “had had positive impact on enrolment in schools” and said the size should be increased. — GNA