Govt absorbs UCC course fee for 4,000 private school owners

The government has absorbed the fees of professional training courses to be undertaken by about 4,000 private school owners and teachers in the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the Director for Private Schools, Mr Gyetuah has said.

In a discussion with AcademicWeek.com, Mr Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah said the forthcoming comprehensive training is aimed at enhancing the professional competencies and academic upgrading of the teachers and the owners.

“Finally, the government of Ghana has absorbed the cost of training for 4, 000 private school teachers and owners to undertake professional training courses in UCC and Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS)

This is aiming at enhancing the professional competencies and academic upgrading of the teachers and the owners. We thank the government for the support and wish that this recognition would continue always,” Gyetuah said.

The professional education training to be funded by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), GNACOPS collaborators and other affiliates, the Private Schools Council Director said will see some 4,000 private school practitioners enrolled.

He said some private schools’ practitioners that applied for the leadership education programme and the common core programme on January 3, 2023, will converge at Workers College – Accra to undertake a 5-day programme that will enhance their ability to manage their schools

“On the same day, the University of Cape Coast (UCC) will ALSO train private school teachers to acquire competencies and academic certificates in basic education as we speak now admission letters ongoing,” Obengfo Gyetuah noted.

The GNACOPS National Executive Director added that “all prospective applicants on December 30 and 31, 2022 will meet UCC in various centres allocated across the country for an orientation to be onboarded on the programme.”

In other news, research conducted by GNACOPS has disclosed 85 per cent of private school proprietors are not professionally equipped with knowledge and understanding within the scope of private education.

Mr Gyetuah, the National Executive Director of GNACOPS speaking to AcademicWeek.com said it is for this reason his outfit has introduced an educational leadership training program to train private school owners in the country.

The education leadership training programme, Mr Enoch Gyetuah said is an excellent opportunity that was designed as a result of the study which was conducted by the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) in 2018.

“The research conducted in 2018 revealed that over 85% of private education operators really do not know and have not been exposed to the legal understanding of activities of running private education in Ghana,” Mr Enoch said.