Denkyembour District Assembly Holds Education Oversight Committee Meeting
Posted by Elvis Offei-Bekoe - 15th June, 2022
On Wednesday 15th June 2022, the District Education Oversight Committee of the Denkyembour District Assembly held its second meeting for the year 2022. The committee’s mandates as spelt out by the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) to ensure that the conditions of school buildings and any other infrastructural requirement are overseen. Also, the committee is responsible for overseeing the performance of functions by staff at the various schools within the district.
The District Chief Executive for the district and chairman for the committee; Honourable Seth Birikorang Ofosu welcomed all members to the committee and shared his utmost gratitude to members for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend the meeting. He mentioned that education remains a key priority to the assembly and the nation at large hence the importance of the committee.
The District Director for Education and Secretary of the committee; Mr Thomas More Mensah Tsorhe took the house through the agenda of the day. The first agenda discussed was the Regional Excellence Award. The secretary mentioned that the award scheme which was launched in Koforidua in April 2022 seeks to award outstanding teachers from KG, Primary, JHS and SHS levels, outstanding worker, best WASSCE School, best BECE School, best BECE district and other special awards within the district.
The issue of extra classes for JHS 3 students within the district was also discussed. He mentioned that heads of basic school appealed to the directorate to organize remedial classes for JHS 3 students to make them cover for the COVID-19 break. He stated that executives of the respective PTAs of the schools were ready to use the PTA fund to motivate teachers towards that course.
He informed the house about a two day orientation workshop for sixty newly trained teachers recruited and posted to the district to fill in existing vacancies. They were taken through the in-service education and training such as code of ethics, condition of service, communication, continuous professional development, financial management issues, welfare and other core values in the teaching profession.
Also, the secretary of the committee took the house through the upcoming Reading and Cultural Festival for Basic Schools. He stated that the Transition to English program has charged all districts under the program to organize schools, circuits and districts to organize a reading festival for basic 1, basic 2 and basic 3 learners in Ghanaian language and English language using reading books provided by development partners. He mentioned that the directorate in collaboration with the health directorate will undertake the program under the theme ‘Promoting Good Adolescent Practices through Our Ghanaian Culture’.
Issues of District Education Oversight Committee monitoring in selected schools and issues regarding school feeding program were briefly discussed. It was agreed that the committee will undertake monitoring of some selected schools would be undertaken before the next quarter meeting of the committee. Also, feeding of learners in the schools would also be monitored during the monitoring exercise.
The chairman for the committee in his closing remarks appointed a 3 member sub-committee to look into matters regarding St Dominic Catholic Basic School on some of their activities. He then expressed his gratitude to all members for their time and immense contributions throughout the meeting.