Compel institutions to maintain infrastructure - Most Rev. Dr Boafo
The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Rev. Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo, has appealed to the government to consider enacting a law that will compel heads of institutions to create a budget and a plan for the maintenance of their own facilities to avoid totally running down such infrastructure.
He explained that such a law would prevent schools, health facilities and other public institutions from leaving their infrastructure for a long time without maintenance.
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Most Rev. Dr Boafo made the appeal when the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, paid a courtesy call on the leadership of the Methodist Church Ghana in Accra last Friday.
The visit, which the minister described as a listening tour to faith-based organisations in the country, was to dialogue and share ideas, explain government policies on education, and to also seek their opinion on other issues relating to the development of education and other facets of life in the country.
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The Presiding Bishop lauded the Education Minister for his efforts at transforming the nation's economy through education.
He was upbeat that the ongoing reforms in the education sector would soon bring about transformation in the nation's socio-economic development, which, he said, held the key to poverty reduction in the long run.
Most Rev. Dr Boafo pledged the church's readiness to continue partnering with the government to provide education and other development initiatives in the country.
Dr Adutwum said his meeting with the faith-based organisations was to firm up the good relationship that had existed between them and the ministry.
He explained that the government was doing everything possible to look for the needed resources despite the current challenges to continue with the right development agenda.
Dr Adutwum said the government had undertaken various initiatives in the education sector to make Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as technical and vocational education and training the centre of the nation's education drive.
He expressed the hope that the proposed National Education Leadership Institute would prevent the situation where people only became heads of institutions a few years before they retired from active service, making them go away with their good leadership skills.
Dr Adutwum also spoke about the intended introduction of Ghana Basic Education Skills next year to ensure that students aspiring to colleges of education write entrance examinations to ensure that people who are selected to be trained to become teachers possess what it takes to become teachers in the country.