Vice President Naana Opoku Agyemang has assured head teachers that government will continue putting money into school infrastructure, including classroom blocks, furniture, sanitation facilities and teacher accommodation in deprived communities.
She said this at the 5th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the Conference of Heads of Basic Schools (COHBS) at the Ghana National Cultural Centre in Koforidua, held under the theme “Repositioning Headteachers for Effective School Governance and Improved Learning Outcomes.”
Speaking to head teachers gathered from across the country, the Vice President said good school leadership needs the right buildings, tools and backing to actually work.
“We acknowledge that infrastructure deficits still exist in some communities, and efforts are ongoing to address them systematically,” she said, pointing to teacher accommodation projects currently underway.
She added that the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service are still supplying schools with textbooks, teaching materials and other resources, and that government wants to bring more technology into how schools are managed and how children are taught.
The Vice President had warm words for head teachers, describing them as administrators, mentors, community organisers, financial managers and agents of change all at once. She pointed to research showing that school leadership matters almost as much as teaching quality itself when it comes to how well children learn.
For the Vice President, the trip to Koforidua was a homecoming. She attended St. Joseph’s Anglican Primary School in the town before going to boarding school elsewhere in the Eastern Region. Education Minister Hon. Haruna Iddrisu was also present as Guest of Honour.
Others in attendance included Daasebre Kwaku Boateng III, Paramount Chief of the New Juaben Traditional Area, who chaired the event; Eastern Regional Minister Hon. Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey; Eastern Regional Director of Education Dr. Ivy Asantwaa Owusu; COHBS National President Mr. Nicholas Nii Kpakpo Addo; and Ghana Education Service Director-General Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis.
On the matter of responsibility allowances and capitation grants, the Vice President asked head teachers to bear with government given the current state of the economy, telling them their concerns had not gone unnoticed.
