Ghana ‘committed to education, MDGs’

GOVERNMENT

Ghana’s Education Minister has reiterated the government’s commitment to modernizing the country’s education infrastructure.

Education Minister Betty Mould-Iddrisu said the government considered early childhood education a priority as a long term solution to Ghana’s economic and social problems.

She was speaking at the first annual Conference on International Research and Early Childhood Education at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in the Central Region.

The conference, jointly organised by the Faculty of Education of UCC and Monash University, Australia, is being attended by more than 150 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Senegal Cameroon. Bangladesh, UK, USA, Australia, and China.

Mould-Iddrisu said government through the Municipal, Metropolitan and District Assemblies, demonstrated its commitment to the wellbeing of the Ghanaian child and ratification of various global policy framework such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the child, framework for Action and the Millennium Development Goals.

The Minister has noted her determination to improve Ghana’s education system previously. In her New Year message for 2012, she said: “I am focused on ensuring that our youth from kindergarten to tertiary level are equipped to handle the educational, vocational, technological and practical challenges of this millennium."

She said: "The Ghanaian educational system still faces huge challenges in accessing information – in senior high schools there is an average of about 30 students per computer and 50 students to a computer at the tertiary level.”

The vision of the government to ensure that there are no more classrooms under trees by 2012 and to increase computer access to all school children are but a few of the other challenges that are waiting for me over the next two years. I am confident of success and am poised to provide effective leadership on this agenda.”