The Deputy Minister in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum, has said Ghana needs to put in place a system which will help to hold people accountable and also determine who is really working as part of efforts to transform the country’s education system.

Dr Adutwum, who was speaking in an interview with Bishop Abraham Aidoo on Kidz Zone on Class91.3FM Saturday, 4 May 2019, said: “There has to be a system that allows people to be held accountable, and, as a result, they don’t wait for school inspectors to turn things around”.

The deputy minister also emphasised the need for a national assessment system of schools to help determine which ones are doing well and which are falling by the road.

In his view, until such a foundation is laid, it will be difficult to say Ghana is transforming her education system as a country.

He stated: “For example, if there’s a primary school in Ghana now, how do you assess how good the school is? You have no way apart from inspecting the school one day and saying: ‘I went there and there was time on task’. Apart from the teachers telling you that we did the exams and this is how the kids did, as a government, we have no way of knowing that Kojokrom Primary School is doing well. But if we have a national assessment and that school has a test for Primary 2 at the national level and Primary 4 and Primary 6, you can take a look at the data and say to yourself: when Akosua Mansa was in Primary 2, she scored very low on English assessment, by the time she got to primary 4, I saw an improvement’.

“She did so well and, so, this school must be doing something right and, so, if you don’t have those systems in place, it’s difficult to really say that you want to transform your education system. Those foundations must be there, and we must be seen as working with parents and teachers and holding schools accountable for performance and recognising those that do very well.”

Source: Ghana/ClassFMmonline.com/91.3FM