GETFUND TO SHIFT FOCUS ON BASIC EDUCATION (SPREAD, MAY 17, 2010)

THE government has directed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to change its focus on second-cycle and tertiary institutions towards the development of basic education.
The change in focus has become necessary because an evaluation of the disbursement of the fund by the government has shown that priority has been given to the development of second-cycle and tertiary institutions, to the neglect of basic education.
The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who made this known in Sunyani, referred to a recent meeting at Sogakope in the Volta Region which took stock of the application of the GETFund, among other issues.
Addressing the fifth annual national conference of the Islamic Education Unit Council at the Teachers Hall on Saturday, the Vice-President said the evaluation exercise revealed that the GETFund had focused more of its resources on the development of infrastructure in second-cycle and tertiary institutions.
The theme for the conference was: "Islam and Education in the Globalised World — Challenges and the Way Forward”.
Mr Mahama said from the evaluation, the government had decided that much attention should now be placed on deprived basic schools, including Islamic institutions.
He was of the view that with the provision of a solid basic education, the children could then qualify to second-cycle and tertiary institutions and help in the effective development of the country.
Underlying the fact that advanced countries have been able to make it to where they are now because they put premium on education at the basic level, he said placing premium on second-cycle and tertiary institutions was not the answer to achieving development goals by 2015 or 2020.
He observed that teaching and learning in Islamic schools could not be said to be satisfactory, as they had a negative impact on the quality of education for Muslim children, and asked proprietors of Islamic primary schools to be more proactive in the management of those schools.
“What we need in the Islamic Education Unit schools is the setting of performance targets or indicators, while paying attention to supervision and monitoring. It is only through these mechanisms that quality education is assured,” the Vice-President said.
“There must be a collaborated effort between the government and all stakeholders at providing quality basic education for Muslim children because only then will it provide a springboard for these children to acquire higher academic and professional qualifications,” Mr Mahama declared.
By so doing, he said, the children could achieve greater laurels in the pursuit of knowledge and ultimately minimise early girl-child marriage, reduce the school drop out rate and eventually decrease social vices in our communities.
In the past, he said, Muslims refused to send their children to school because they had the fear that the children would depart from the cause of Islam.
They, therefore, established Arabic schools, popularly referred to as Makaranta, in the private homes of learned Muslims called Mallams to educate their children.
The Vice-President gave the assurance that the government would provide support to enhance the quality of education in Islamic schools.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Manager of the Islamic Education Unit, Mr Mahama Imoru, said the unit started with less than 10 basic schools in the country but currently it could boast 1,160 units, with total enrolment of 268,200.
He said the number of pupils who had completed Islamic junior high schools since 1987 was quite great and that a good number of them were in higher institutions of learning, while many products were on the job market rendering invaluable services to the nation.
He said the biggest challenge was that 22 years since the establishment of the unit, Arabic Studies, which featured prominently in the curricular, was still not examinable at the Basic Education Certificate Examination level.
The Vice-President later in the day paid a courtesy call on the Omanhene of the Nkoranza Traditional Area, Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV, at his palace in Nkoranza and later joined the Queen of Anyima, Nana Saa Gyamfua II, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of her enstoolment.
He was accompanied by the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, and the Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr Alex Asuma Ahensah.