Two organisations strengthen management, supervision in schools
The Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), a Tamale-based NGO, with support from STAR-Ghana, a multi-donor funding organisation, is implementing a three-year programme in some districts in the Northern Region to build the capacity of stakeholders in education to strengthen management and supervision in schools.
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The programme, which started in 2012, dubbed “Improving Educational Governance and Accountability (IEGA), is aimed at equipping participants to ensure regular monitoring and supervision in schools, as well as enhancing coordination and collaboration among civil society organisations to ensure harmony
The beneficiary districts are Gushegu, Karaga, West Mamprusi and Savelugu/Nanton. The intervention is aimed at addressing challenges that affect quality education delivery, leading to poor performance of students at the basic level in those areas.
Challenges
According to the Executive Director of RAINS, Mr Tijani Mohammed Hardi, before the inception of the programme, bodies with oversight responsibilities in the education sector, such as school management committees and parent- teacher associations, were either not functioning or improperly constituted.
They did not also have access to platforms to enable them to communicate their challenges to duty-bearers for the necessary action.
Intervention
“However, as a result of effective and efficient implementation of this project, coupled with cooperation from district education stakeholders, the intervention has worked to improve the work of the various oversight committees which now design and execute quarterly action plans at their respective communities,” the manager indicated.
For instance, in the West Mamprusi District, Mr Hardi said, the partners were working together with the district directorate of education to help eliminate the girl-child elopement phenomenon which was militating against the enrolment of girls in schools in the district.
In the Langa community in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, the school management committee and the PTA initiated the payment of contributions at the community level, leading to the mobilisation of GH¢700.00 for the acquisition of furniture and ICT laboratory for the community school, while some individuals have also sponsored the enrolment of children, particularly girls, into schools in the area.
Beneficiary communities
All the eight beneficiary communities have also worked hard to improve the pupil-teacher ratio by supporting the recruitment and maintenance of community volunteer teachers.
“This is an initiative they are managing now, hoping that their current engagement with the authorities will lead to the posting of qualified teachers to their schools. These communities in their own small ways are addressing the issue of lack of teachers confronting deprived communities in Ghana.”
At Moglaa, the community embarked on teacher accountability and responsiveness drive that led to the transfer of a headteacher who was not living up to expectation of the community.
Under the project, a civil society organisations coalition on education has been formed that is collaborating with relevant stakeholders in education to operationalise proper interventions in educational institutions in the various districts.
Mr Hardi further entreated parents and guardians, as well as other stakeholders in the education sector to step up their efforts in ensuring that pupils not only enrolled in school but were made to complete education at the various levels.