GRADE 'D' AND 'E' SHOULD NOT BE GLORIFED

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

The Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has entreated heads and teachers of Senior High Schools (SHS) to adequately prepare their students to enable them graduate with best grades.

According to him, grades ‘D’ and ‘E’ should not be considered as pass grades but rather as a fail mark.

Dr. Prempeh said, no university in the country would admit any student with such grades therefore they should improve their learning performance.

The Minister said this at the 2017 Ghana Education Evidence summit held in Accra, which aimed to improve quality education and learning in the country.

The programme was on the theme “Using Evidence for Impact in Teacher Education.”

Dr. Prempeh urged students to strive in the pursuit of academic excellence and become professionals Ghana would boast of.

 “I want every SHS student to meet the required grade of tertiary institution and become a person the nation will be proud of”, he said.

He attributed the poor performance of students to inadequate guidelines teachers give to them adding that “teaching is evidence based and the reflection of that evidence is the examination result.”

In ensuring better performance of students, he said, teachers should increase the time that they spend with students in teaching.

Dr. Prempeh stated that they should not only focus on the subject knowledge but emphasize the pedagogy to make sure each student understand the lessons being taught.

He stressed the need for teachers to create more interactive, pupil-centered approach to teaching as it is the key to learning.

The National Programme Manager of Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL), Mr. Akwasi Addae-Boahene in an interview with Ghanaian Times bemoaned that the lack of evidence demonstrated in teaching has retarded the progress of learning.

He said teachers should observe and assess the lessons that they teach to ensure students and pupils make enough progress in their performance.

“Teachers have to assess and see whether there is enough reflection, evidence and impact of the lessons they teach their students”, he stressed.

Mr. Addae-Boahene however called on teachers to significantly improve their level of teaching and learning to ensure better results across the country adding that “Teachers make our Nation”.

PUPILS OF OSU GRACED THE HOMOWO FESTIVAL WITH 'OUR DAY' VARIETY SHOW

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

A youth variety show, dubbed “Our Day” has been held at Osu as part of activities marking this year’s Homowo festival celebration.

The show, which aimed at unearthing talents among children, was organised on Thursday by The Infinity 970 in collaboration with the Ghanaian Times, GOIL, Ceejay and The Buka.

Held under the theme, “Youth and Education,” the show sought to engage the youth from various communities, churches and schools to participate in a talent hunt challenge.

The beneficiary children, aged between six and 12 years, took part in reading, talent exhibition, computer games and football and dancing competitions at the event.

The winners of the English and Ga reading competition were Yoney Adjei Larbi, Abigail Sam, Jonathan Laryea, Kester Sekyire, Duke Abban and Peter Charles Amarh who fell between the ages of 6 to 12.

Others who won the dancing and drawing competition were Philipa Nyamekye, Michael Asibi, Victoria Lamisi, Vincent Nortey, Jonathan Ablorh and Caleb Adu- Acheampong.

Each winner was presented with a pack of exercise books, a box of pen and reading materials.

The Osu Mantse Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, speaking at the event, urged pupils to stay focused and disciplined in their studies to become responsible future leaders.

According to him, education was the key to become great professionals hence the need to uphold learning to ensure academic excellence. 

“I will entreat all pupils to learn and become good professionals in doing so they should take their education serious,” he said.

Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI indicated that there was no time to waste and before the pupils could achieve their goal of becoming the desired personality that they have chosen for themselves, they should uphold their education first.

“The future of the pupils starts from now and they should adequately prepare themselves to meet their future needs,” he stressed.

The Osu Mantse noted that the future of Osu lay on the strength of the children, therefore, engaging them in the celebration would propel them to cultivate good habits that could improve the welfare of the community.

In helping the community to uphold their education, he pledged to support the needy children of Osu to further their education to the greatest height they wanted.

The Executive Director of Infinity 970, Ms Barbara Davies advised the youth to cultivate the habit of reading adding that “pupils should not only read for academic purpose but they should read to broaden their knowledge.”

She said pupils should expose themselves to new ways of learning in order to improve their education.

Mr. Samuel Okai, a teacher of Ringway Estate School, who spoke at the event, encouraged the pupils to strive in the pursuit of academic excellence.

EXERCISE RESTRAINT IN THE PERSECUTION OF OPPOSITION MEMBERS - STUDENTS PLEAD

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

The Concerned Students of Ghana (CSG) has called on the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to remain focus on his core mandate of meeting the needs of masses who voted him into power.

This they said would help him to withstand the commitment of delivering his campaign promises in due time without any divided attention.

They said Ghanaians were expecting him to work in solving the crises of the Energy sector, corruption and Unemployment crippling the nation.  

This was disclosed in a press statement by Ghana Students dubbed “Political Victimisation”.

The students pleaded with the president to restrain from persecuting members of the opposition parties especially those who are the sitting parliamentarians to maintain peace and sanity in the country.

“We deem it as a gross infringement of their fundamental human right entrenched in Article 12 of the 1992 constitution.”

In the interest of the nation, they said the NPP-led government was duty bound per the requirements of the Social contract entered with Ghanaians in 2016.

They furthered that the government must put necessary measures in place in ensuring that students realised their full aspirations in life.

They however lauded the government for the Free SHS which aimed at building an educated populace for speedy national development and progress, adding that “The Free SHS is very dear to our hearts and would wish to see its implementation in September this year.”

They called on the government to pay keen interest to the nurses and teachers allowances which was in limbo as well as the army worm invasion threatening the food security of the country.

SHUT DOORS ON YOUR MINISTERS- KOFI AMAOBENG TELLS THE PRESIDENT

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

The founder of the Unique Trust (UT) Bank, Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng has said that government appointees should be held accountable whenever they are late to functions.

The move, he explained would ensure that Ministers and stakeholders in major public positions honor time, when they are invited to grace functions.

“If there should be punctuality in the public service, leaders should first embrace the punctuality campaign by given respect to time and stop being late to work and public events” he said

Mr Amoabeng said this yesterday in Accra, when he endorsed the Punctuality Ghana Public Campaign aimed creating awareness on punctuality and effective time management.

The campaign is championed by Wisewater foundation, a non-governmental organisation that promotes social good of Ghanaian by facilitating public education on national issues.

Mr Amoabeng said the situation where leaders who are role model to the younger generation become late to function should not be tolerated and entertained.

“Leadership must be seen to be leading the way when it comes to punctuality. Instead of leaders being the last to show up at events, they should rather be first “he said.

He noted that the time to weed out poor time management which continues to cripple the country’s economy must be now.

The Crusader of Punctuality Ghana Public Campaign, Mr Emmanuel Amarquaye said in creating the awareness of punctuality, there would be concept of signage, seminars and workshop to help inculcate the habit of punctuality in Ghanaians.

He noted the major contribution to corruption was punctuality, explaining that, people create unnecessary queue that would result in unacceptable corruption.

“Misuses of government time for social media and prayers are unacceptable and ought not to be tolerated. The development of Ghana must thrive on conscious time and hard work” he said.    

GHANA HEALTH SERVICE REQUIRES STRONG LEADERSHIP IN ENSURING GOOD SERVICE DELIVERY

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

Health professionals and educators from Africa and beyond are attending a three day symposium in Accra to deliberate measures for effective cooperation among health workers to enhance health service delivery.

The symposium organised by the Africa Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth) was also necessitated by the need to examine best practices to prevent common disease infections for improved health outcomes.

The symposium has the theme, ‘Leadership and Capacity Building for Health Professional Education and Research.”        

Mr. Kwaku Agyemang Manu, Minister of Health, who opened the symposium Tuesday, said the health system requires strong leadership and effective governance at all levels to ensure improved service delivery.

He, therefore, called on health professionals and educators to provide leadership and address the problems, saying “we cannot blame others for our non-performance.”

“Our health systems face a number of challenges including poor infrastructure, un-integrated information systems and the absence of comprehensive emergency services, weak governance structures and inadequate financing of health care services also contributes to the poor state of the health of our population,” he said.

The Minister lauded AFREhealth for taking steps to get rid of the traditional barriers that hinder effective workplace collaboration and cooperation  among health workers, and hope that bridging the gap would pave way for the provision of a transformed health landscape in Africa..

“There must be a strong collaboration and corporation between health workers because if you are to treat a patient with malaria, you need a doctor, nurse, laboratory scientist and a pharmacist at the minimum.”

Mr. Agyemang Manu observed that the health sector lacked adequate health personnel with requisite skills and the few available were concentrated in the cities and teaching hospitails to the detriment of the majority in the rural areas.

He, however, urged participants of the symposium to develop solutions to address challenges with human resource, infectious disease, injury and non communicable disease among other in the health sector.

Professor Peter Donkor, Chairman of AFREhealth, for his part, said the  complex nature of health challenges in Africa and other parts of the world, required a well-trained workforce  and the need for all hands to be on deck to find solutions.

He stressed the need for all health workers to value each other’s work and collaborate to promote satisfactory services and meet the health needs of the public.

He advised health training institutions to review their lesson and upgrade them to meet the changing and growing demands on patients.

Dr.Roger Glass, Director Fogarty International Center, United States of America (USA), stated that government must invest in the training of health workers to cater better for patients as the wealth of a nation lies in the health of its population.

He said AFREhealth has developed a model to scale up the training of doctors, nurses and other health workers. 

NOMINATE COMPETENT PERSON TO MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS, ACE ANKOMAH TELLS GHANAIANS

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

A legal practitioner, Ace Kojo Annan Ankomah has attributed the non-sustenance of many family businesses in the country to ineffective leadership skills of successive managers.

Expressing worry over the phenomenon, he stressed the need for business owners to nominate competence persons to manage their business and protect their legacies.

The managing partner of the Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa and Ankomah (BELA) law firm was speaking on effective leadership at a breakfast meeting of the Union Ghana, a social club in Accra on Friday.

He said leadership was not about the quality of the individual at the helms of affairs but the team, stating that “if your business collapses when you die, you are not an effective leader.”

Mr. Ankomah, explaining the various leadership traits, said   they included coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pace setting and coaching leaders with their respective strengths and weaknesses.

He said for a leader to be effective, the various skills must be combined or a particular one adopted, depending on the circumstance or environment.

He said that the measure of good leadership was not based on how one managed a situation but the quality of the result that determines, saying “If you are a leader and you don’t get good result, you are not a good leader”.

Focusing on the story of the Biblical Joseph, Mr. Ankomah said some leaders were effective because they were “to comfortable” at home when they were growing up.

He charged members of the union to make wise financial decisions, control their tempers, among others to improve their respective businesses.

The president of The Union, Mr. William Arthur urged leaders to be strategic thinkers in order to become capable of sensing challenges ahead to pull out the right measures in overcoming those challenges.