By: Francis Abedi
The maiden conference of Heads of Basic Schools in the Asokwa Municipality of Ashanti has taken place at Asokwa. The event focused on various areas of Education Management including the role of head teachers in ensuring quality teaching and learning.
Discussions were also held on inclusive education and the need for community sensitization.
The maiden conference was attended by Basic School Heads from the Asokwa, Atonsu and Dompoase circuits under the supervision of the Asokwa Municipal Directorate of Education, education experts, parents and other relevant stakeholders.
Discussions centred on challenges affecting teaching and learning outcomes in basic schools and the need for stakeholders to work together to address them.
A former Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mr. Joseph Onyinah stressed the need for a change to the teaching methods at the basic schools to enable teachers to better appreciate the talents of pupils and properly groom them to achieve excellence and fulfilment.
“The teacher should begin by asking the learners questions, as they are already aware of the topic they plan to teach and may suspect that the students have some relevant prior knowledge. By asking targeted questions, the teacher can assess what the learners already know about the topic. This helps in identifying their pre-existing understanding before introducing new concepts. In doing so, we acknowledge and respect the dignity of the child,” he stated.
The Acting Chairperson of the Association of Heads of Basic Schools in the Asokwa Municipality, Madam Sarah Akyampong emphaised the need for government intervention to resolve challenges affecting basic schools within the municipality.
“As at now we have 511 teachers and our pupils enrollment is over ten thousand. This clearly tells you that we do have a lot of work to do especially in this age you know what social media is doing to our children so definitely we have to come together united to be able to direct the children to where we want them to be. Again most of our schools are not fenced so intruders normally come in to disturb us when we are in classes”.
The Asokwa Municipal Director of Education, Mr. Ebenezer Oteng Marfo said measures are being put in place to address overcrowding in classrooms which hinders effective teaching and learning.
“Concerning the large class size it’s common in most of the metros and the municipals or the city centers where some of the schools are oversubscribed and what we are doing is to also appeal to the Assemblies for their support and then we increase structures in some of those places so that we can decongest the class size to a very large minimum so that they can improve teaching and learning”.
The Asokwa Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Amo Kamil assured of financial discipline.
“I assure you that Asokwa Municipal will continue to be transparent and ensure that efficient resource allocation from the Municipality’s share of the Common Fund to address challenges in the education sector within the municipality is delivered”.
The theme for the conference was “Transforming Basic Schools in Ghana: Challenges and Opportunities.”
