Poor supervision affects school performance

Published in the Daily Graphic on 18/06/2010, pg 11

Story: Matilda Attram
The lack of supervision of teachers has been identified as a contributing factor to the poor academic performance in some public schools in the country.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo who made the observation has consequently charged circuit supervisors to intensify supervision of schools under their jurisdiction for optimal results.
He said the problem of ineffective supervision made some good teachers perform poorly which, resulted in the low teaching and learning outcomes of schools.
“ It is a fact that public basic schools do not perform as creditably as private schools although there are some exceptions that rob shoulder with these private ones,” he stated.
The Minister was speaking at the 34th Annual National Conference of Managers of the Catholic Educational Unit (COMCEU) in Accra.
It was to create opportunities for participants from various parts of the country to share their experiences and challenges in the delivery of their duties in the educational sector.
It was also intended to allow the participants to discuss measures that would enhance their duties.
Mr Tetteh-Enyo said there was also the need to monitor the effectiveness of teachers through their performance by regularly visiting the schools and inspecting their lesson notes.
He said they could also mount in-service training programmes to equip teachers to deliver.
Mr Tetteh-Enyo commended the role churches and religious bodies played to complement the delivery of education in the country and gave the assurance that sections of the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) would be implemented to its fullest.
According to him, the Act provided the decentralisation of education which, included the provision and management of basic and second cycle schools to District Assemblies.
He stated that it made it imperative for ministries of local government and education to jointly work out the decentralisation policy guidelines and strategies.
He called on COMCEU to continue supporting the nation’s education as it had already demonstrated in the high ethical and spiritual ideals of its products.
Speaking on the theme ‘Good Character Formation: The Role of the Catholic Education’, the Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Tamale, Most Rev Philip Naameh, stated that the formation of character was a collective effort of parents and teachers and encouraged all to teach the youth to adopt the culture of the country.
In his welcoming address, the President of COMCEU, Rev Fr Addae Boateng, appealed to the government to encourage and permit religious bodies to manage their educational institutions to help minimise the high incidence of immoral decadence in society.
He stressed on the vision of the Catholic education to continue to imbibe in the students good ethical and moral virtues.