Strategic Plan for guidance, counselling in pre-tertiary schools launched
A five-year Guidance and Counselling Strategic Plan aimed at enhancing the delivery of guidance and counselling service in pre-tertiary schools across the country has been launched in Accra, last week Thursday.
The strategic plan, to be implemented from 2018 to 2022, will serve as a blueprint that will provide effective guidance and counselling services to students to enhance their academic performance, reduce the drop-out rate and help them to make informed career choices.
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Besides, two other important documents — the Teacher Mentor Training Manual and the Civic Handbook for students — have also been developed and are ready for use in pre-tertiary institutions.
The Teacher Mentor Training Manual will be the main curriculum that guides the delivery of a holistic training programme to teacher mentors/guidance, counselling coordinators and counsellors, while the Civic Handbook is designed to enlighten pre-tertiary school students to help them imbibe the attitudes of nationalism, civic mindedness, entrepreneurship and social etiquette in the service of self, community and country.
Annual learning summit
The National Director of Campaign for Female Education-Ghana (Camfed-Ghana), Mr John Asibi Ali, announced that at the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme annual learning summit in Accra.
The event, held on the theme “Implementing the national guidance and counselling strategic plan: Call to all stakeholders,” was to elicit stakeholders’ support for the implementation of the five-year strategic plan to enhance quality education.
The participants included representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service (GES), Colleges of Education, National Teaching Council, regulatory and inspectorate bodies, guidance and counselling experts, civil society organisations, parents and teachers.
Abreast of issues
Mr Ali said the five-year strategic plan was intended to serve, among others, as a monitoring and evaluation tool that would help the Guidance and Counselling Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to know “what should be happening, what is happening and be able to access the delivery of guidance and counselling service in pre-tertiary schools.
He said though guidance and counselling was a necessary requirement for enhancing academic performance, reducing the drop-out rate and helping students to make informed career choices, the subject had not been given the due attention over the years.
In a bid to address such challenge and also focus attention on assisting school leavers to make smooth transition from school to a secure future employment, he said Camfed Ghana focused last year’s annual learning summit on the issue of transition support.
“Considering that the transition from secondary school represents an especially challenging period in the lives of young people, it is important to create sustainable opportunities for the youth to transit into employment and self-employment to ensure that they are able to access the means of sustainable livelihoods,” he said.
Inclusive education
An Economist with the Ministry of Education, Mr Ernest Otoo, said the strategic plan was structured on seven thematic components that included basic education, secondary education, inclusive education, special education, non-formal education and tertiary education.
He, therefore, was optimistic that the summit would allow the participants to come up with ideas to address the teething problems facing education in the country and ensure that no child was denied access to quality education.