The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has called on educational administrators to make decisions that are data driven to promote academic excellence.

Dr. Adutwum underscored the need for educational administrators to make use of technology to collect data and analyse them to make informed decisions concerning their schools.

He expressed worry about the rising rate at which some heads of educational institutions were not abreast of the statistical performances of their schools to make cogent decisions.

The Deputy Minister was speaking at a colloquium organised by the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) on the theme: “21st Century Skills for Educational Administrators.”

Dr. Adutwum admitted that there were a number of pressing challenges confronting most schools in the country. He pointed out that some of the challenges include inability of majority of senior high school graduates to gain admission to University due to mass failure in the West African Senior High School Certificate Examination (WASSCE); limited technology uses in schools and classrooms among others.

The Minister said despite these challenges, his Ministry had begun a school transformation effort focused on improving learning outcomes of students.  “Amongst these are teacher education reform and the extension of the length of training to four years, curriculum reform at all levels and the introduction of national assessment,” he noted.

Another intervention he mentioned was that the Ministry was instituting a school leadership development programme as a collaboration between Varkey Foundation and Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) to train and develop school administrators. “Our currents efforts underscore the importance of the need to equip school administrators with 21st century skills,” he continued.

He explained strategic leadership, instructional leader, leading institutional culture, leading people and developing people as well as exceptional managerial leadership skills as five key pillars which must be leveraged in an effort to ensure improved student outcomes.

Discussants at a colloquium on modern skills for educational administrators have called for the involvement of all major stakeholders in the educational value chain in the implementation of government policies.

According to them, stakeholders were not adequately educated on government initiatives which make it difficult for them to implement these policies very well in their areas of operation. They, therefore, asked government to always engage critical stakeholders such as headmasters, headmistresses, directors of education, to ensure effective implementation of government initiatives.

The discussants made this known at a colloquium organised by the Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) under the theme: “21st Century Skills for Educational Administrators.”

The event, held at the Main Auditorium, was to provide a platform to explore rare expectations of educational leaders with the requisite skills to effectively function as educational administrators, managers and planners. It brought together heads of institutions, traditional rulers, lecturers, tutors of colleges of Education and Students.

In his contribution, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K.T. Oduro, wondered why successive government officials failed to draw a line between politics and governance, as well as policy and implementation and advised that it was time the country moved from political initiatives to national initiatives. “I have always said that the Free SHS policy is very good. But with the implementation, we didn’t do much. Before elections, let’s do all the politics. Let the initiatives become national after elections,” he advised.

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor mentioned national character, creativity, listening skills, knowledge about school, communication skills as some of the qualities of  21st century educational administrators. He charged educational administrators to create enabling environment for their subordinates and treat all of them based on their professional competences and not party affiliations.

Prof. Oduro implored the Ghana Education Service, GES,  to facilitate the process for educational administrators to make learning the center of school and requested that instead of teachers living schools during contact hours to transact business with various organisations, the GES should collaborate with organisations to come to the school to provide services to teachers.

Taking his turn, the Director General of GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, reiterated that major educational stakeholders were invited to brainstorm on the Free SHS policy. He, however, admitted that stakeholders such as regional and district directors were not involved in the implementation of the free SHS policy. He said  21st century educational administrators should not solve the problems of their institutions on radio, but use the appropriate communication channels of the GES to resolve issues. “If you are Head, you don’t solve your problems on radio, you should know where to solve it. So if you go and solve it on radio, that’s where you will get the challenge,” he said.

A former Headmaster of Mfantsipim School, Mr. Koame M. Edjah, who set the tone for the discussion, called for the closure of the yawning gap between heads of educational institutions and the Ministry of Education, as well as the Ghana Education Service, in the formulation and implementation of government policies. He said, for instance, many heads of second cycle institutions were in the dark regarding the implementation procedures of the Free Senior High Schools.

“If policies are being formulated, these stakeholders should be invited to actually understand these policies. I am saying this because most of our leaders –headmasters and mistresses because sometimes there is a big gap between the Mnistry of Education/GES and the heads,” he said. He said though the initiative to provide secondary education for free was laudable, the role of stakeholders was not clearly defined.

“What I want to say is that, for example, the Free SHS is a very good policy but the implementation if you don’t take care will make the whole thing bad, so why don’t you invite the leadership of schools and brainstorm on how to execute the policy?” Mr. Edjah asked. He, therefore, called on goverment and policy makers to always involve stakeholders in the implementation of national policies concerning education to make sure that the quality of such initiatives were not compromised. He advised that 21st century educational administrators should not indulge in partisan politics or use politics to witch-hunt their subordinates in their institutions.

 For his part, the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology Education, UCC, Prof. Sarah Darkwa, called on educational administrators to sharpen their skills always by attending seminars, workshops and pursue further studies. She underscored the need for administrators to upgrade themselves to prove equal to the task of giving quality education in the new education reforms. She appealed to administrators to work hard to improve educational standards in the country.

In his remarks at the colloquium, the Director of IEPA, Dr. Amakyi said the programme was aimed at bringing together stakeholders in education especially educational administrators to share experiences to transform their institutions. He said IEPA would continue to build the capacities of educational administrators through such programmes to enhance their competence. He encouraged participants who had not enrolled on IEPA programmes  to do so in order to upgrade their knowledge and function effectively at their work places.  

Kessben College (KC), Kumasi, has expressed interest to seek affiliation from UCC for its Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communications programme.

In view of this, a team of Assessors from UCC visited the College to review its documents for affiliation and also inspect infrastructural facilities.

The UCC team comprised Director of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance, Prof. J. V. Mensah; the Librarian, Dr. Mac-Anthony Cobblah; Dr. Wincharles Coker of the Department of Communication Studies and Dr. Georgina Yaa Oduro, representative of College of Humanities and Legal Studies.

Other members were Ms. Joyce Sam of the Directorate of Internal Audit; Head of Institutional Affiliation Office, Mr. Justice Agyenim Boateng and Ms. Ellen Dzifa Tettevi of the Institutional Affiliation Office.

KC college was represented by the President, Prof. S. A. Osei; Registrar, Mr. Samuel Osei Poku; Prof. Opoku Agyemang, and Mr. Kwaku Sampeney. Others included Mr. E. Kofi Bani, Ms. Boahemaa Akua and Mr. Dennis Sarkodie Owusu.

The visit afforded the team opportunity to assess the Curriculum for the programme, Staff Curriculum Vitae, Organogram, Statutes, Staff Development Policy, Academic Policies and Regulation and Appointments and Promotions Policy. The team also inspected the infrastructural facilities of the campus like lecture halls, library, wash rooms, offices, campus radio and television station.

At the end of the meeting, the UCC team commended KC for putting up good infrastructural facilities but asked them to correct certain errors in the programme’s curriculum. The leader of the UCC team, Prof. Mensah said they would report back to the Committee on Institutional Affiliation for necessary action to be taken.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has commended the Distance Education Students Association of Ghana (DESAG-UCC) as the most vibrant student association in the University.

According to Prof. Ampiah, the achievement chalked up by the current and past executives of DESAG was remarkable. The Vice-Chancellor mentioned the construction of a three-storey Multi-Purpose Building by the association at the Cape Coast Study Centre to be used as a Child Relaxation Centre for nursing mothers and baby-sitters.

The facility, which is at the final stages of completion, is also expected to bring some relief to nursing mothers on the distance education programme, to facilitate their academic work during face-to- face and end-of-semester examinations. "We commend DESAG for such brilliant initiative", said the Vice-Chancellor. Prof. Ampiah noted that the College of Distance Students (CODE) and DESAG would continue to work closely to replicate similar projects in other regions

Prof. Ampiah gave the commendation during the 14th Session of the 50th Congregation where1, 534 graduands were awarded degrees in their various disciplines. He lauded DESAG for instituting scholarship schemes to assist needy but brilliant students to support their education.

He, however, cautioned managers of the scholarship scheme to ensure transparency in the distribution of funds to deserving underprivileged students.

He announced that the five best graduating Diploma students would be sponsored by the University through CoDE to pursue Post Diploma. He added: " The best Business and Education students will be sponsored to do Master’s degree in the University of Cape-Coast.”

The Vice-Chancellor indicated that the Academic Board of the University had considered a report by the committee set up to restructure the Programmes run at the College to make them more relevant and in consonance with those run at the regular mode.

According to him, implementation of the recommendations of the Committee would start from 2018/19 academic year. Prof. Ampiah, however, called for the cooperation of all staff of the University, especially those at CoDE, for a smooth implementation of the recommendations to inure to the benefit of the institution.

The Vice-Chancellor mentioned delays in the completion of some awarded projects and the production of modules for the students countrywide as major challenges facing the College. He, therefore, appealed to the service providers to the College to expedite work on the production of modules. Prof. Ampiah commended module writers, Chief Examiners, Facilitators, Study Centre Coordinators and Staff of the University for sacrificing their weekends to support the activities of CoDE. Prof. Ampiah congratulated the graduands and advised them to be worthy ambassadors of the University in all their endeavours.