COMMUNITIES MUST GET INVOLVED IN SCHOOL MANAGEMENT (Spread, 24th Nov.)

The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, has underscored the need for communities to get involved in the management of schools.
Receiving a delegation from the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) and Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra yesterday, he said the participation of local communities in the activities of schools was crucial in the success of their engagements and programmes.
The delegation, led by the President of the CTF, Ms Mary-Lou Donnelly, was at the Ministry of Education to brief the Minister on the progress so far made in the implementation of a social development in education project( SODEP), otherwise known as "Nkabom".
Ms Donnelly was accompanied by the General Secretary of GNAT, Mrs Irene Duncan Adanusa, who introduced her to the Minister and other members of GNAT.
The SODEP project seeks to remove all boundaries that worked against access to education, such as lack of school infrastructure, qualified teachers, community support and teaching and learning resources.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said communities needed to participate and support in the decision making of schools because the schools belonged to them.
Briefing the Minister, Ms Donnelly said the SODEP focused on helping the underprivileged schools and to minimise some of the problems that would deprive some of the children of education.
She noted that through the project, resource persons had been trained to assist in facilitating various workshops in the regions.
For his part, the Project Officer, Mr Alex Davidson, said the "Nkabom" would address the needs of quality education.
The General Secretary of the GNAT, Mrs Irene Duncan Adanusa, said the project envisioned the unity of all stakeholders in the education of the child, adding that it would include parents, elders, opinion leaders, Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs), district assemblies and the international agencies.
She said the project also envisioned a partnership with the view to improving infrastructure and learning materials in selected deprived schools in the country.
Mrs Adanusa said under the first phase, the project brought significant improvement in the selected schools in communities in the Accra metropolis and Ga districts, and that the second phase had also trained 300 teachers in the Volta, Brong Ahafo and Eastern regions.
More than 132 needy pupils in the Brong Ahafo Region are expected to benefit from donation of school uniforms, canvas shoes, school bags and learning materials.