Mr. Richard Kovey, the National Convenor of the Campaign Against Privatisation and Commercialization of Education (CAPCOE), has called for the detachment of education from politics, as politicising education has not yielded anything profitable to the sector.
Mr. Kovey said policies in the education sector had always been based on the manifestos of political parties, which led to the change of policies whenever a new party took office, regardless of its effect on the students.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Effect of inadequate financing on learning outcomes at the pre-tertiary level,’ at a stakeholder engagement organised by the Tema Ghana News Agency.
He urged Ghanaians to be interested in education matters and the happenings in the sector, indicating that policies in the sector would have either a positive or negative effect on their children’s future; therefore, it was a must for them to be interested in them without political colouration.
He said accountability in the education sector should not be left onl
y to the teacher unions, but rather that parents, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders must be involved and demand answers on issues concerning curriculum, infrastructure, teaching, and learning materials, among others.
‘If the system is not good, your child will go through it; accountability should be the responsibility of all citizens, not just teachers,’ he said.
Mr. Kovey noted that teachers were policy implementers, therefore mandated by law to implement policies from the government for the education sector, hence their inability to turn down policies they might not agree with.
He explained that teacher unions called for collaboration and dialogue prior to policy formulations for all stakeholders to contribute to it before implementation.
The National Convenor of CAPCOE said policymakers do not engage stakeholders before policy formulation, especially when it was aimed at benefiting them rather than the public.
According to him, when the policy is about to be rolled out, stakeholders
are called to a meeting, and only highlights are shown to them while painting the public picture that they have been consulted.
Source: Ghana News Agency