By: Thaimu Bai Sesay & Saidu Jalloh (Intern)
To keep Free and Quality Education up and running, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MBSSE) has on Tuesday 12th September 2023 in the weekly press briefing of the Ministry of Information and Civic Education confirmed that the Ministry had signed agreements worth over 70 Million Dollars with international partners.
“In terms of partnerships, just within this month, we have signed an agreement with the World Bank for 20 million United States Dollars for foundational learning. We also signed another agreement with an organization called Education Above All for 13.7 million dollars. Global Partnership for Education has also approved 40 million dollars. So if we look at that we have over 70 million dollars plus to enable us to deliver for this country,” said Conard Sackey, Minister of Basic and Secondary School Education.
The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education confirmed that Free and Quality Education is still alive and kicking with the same 22 per cent budget allocation. In addition to the previous strategies initiated, the MBSSE Minister expressed that they had included three special components that would ensure that not only the pregnant and dropped out are brought back to school but also track those that are not going to school.
MBSSE Minister further explained the strategic objectives the Ministry had adopted in which he statistically stated that they had in last year alone recruited and replaced about 3,000 teachers into the system. “In addition to that, we have processed about 3,000 teachers for promotion and reassessments,” he added. The Minister went on to state the other strategic objectives which are geared towards gender disparity, safe environment, accountability, emergency education, how to eliminate corruption, strengthen partnerships and increase technology in the education aspect.
Clarifying the late publication of the West Africa Senior Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for this academic year, he said WAEC is a body on its own although the Ministry does oversee some of its activities. The Minister of Basic and Secondary School Education, however, assured that between the end of this week and mid-next week, WASSCE results would be out so that students can carry out their university applications.
Addressing the long-existing issue of attendance, he frantically expressed that attendance remains a big issue for both teachers and students. MBSSE Minister however assured that they had piloted a new technological initiative called ‘We Dae Ya app’ which he said would be used to track and monitor the attendance of teachers and students in every part of the country. “This initiative is equally important to protect our children, especially those that may have issues and could not go to school. That has implications for us but we have a package for them,” he expressed. The Minster reinforced that the app would be used with a GPS device that would be very effective in monitoring attendance wherever.
