By Nathaniel Nartey
Facebook: Nathaniel Nartey
Twitter: @Annertey_Nartey
Stakeholders in the educational sector have welcomed the directive by the Minister of Education to extend the duration of license renewal for private schools to 3 years. Explaining the rationale behind the new directive, the Minister of Education Dr. Yaw Edu-Twum said the yearly licensing puts the schools on edge over fears of losing their license the following year.
He said the move is also aimed at separating licensing from the mere payment of fees that are due to the National Schools Inspectorate Authority, NASIA. President of the Conference of Directors of Private Pre-Tertiary Schools Phillip Boateng Mensah agreed with the justifications by the Minister for the new directive. He however complained about the modus operandi of NASIA which he described as a Master-Servant Relationship.
‘’The Minister analyzed the issue so well, you cannot get payment of fees to be the basis to legitimize the running of schools. NASIA’s relationship with Private Schools is like a master-servant relation which isn’t auguring well. When NASIA is dealing with Private Schools they need to do that well”, he noted.
Research Fellow with Africa Education Watch Divine Kpe advised leadership of Private Schools to ensure their performance does not drop following the directive.
‘’I will only entreat the (private) schools to ensure they keep up standards and quality in our schools and with the government, NASIA would need to do much more in their continued inspection of the schools to maintain the standard”, according to the Research Fellow with Africa Education Watch Divine Kpe.
