Professor Damasus Tuurosong, the President of Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), has called on the Ministry of Education to abolish the 30 per cent priority placement policy for public schools. He described the policy as discriminating, and a yardstick to deny private second cycle schools the opportunity to admit best performing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates. He made the call at the 29th General Conference of the Association, at Bibiani in the Western North Region, held on the theme: 'Quality, Equity and Access, the Right of the Private school child.' Prof. Tuurosong stressed that the policy was not favourable for private schools, saying, it was gradually having dire consequences on enrolments in such schools in the country. He underscored the relevance of private schools in the development of Ghana's education sector in terms of providing education in communities where there was no access to quality education. Touching on employment, he said the various private educational institutions had contributed significantly to the reduction of unemployment rate in the country by hiring young graduates and other qualified personnel to teach in the schools. According to Prof Tuurosong, private schools played crucial role in educating the Ghanaian child and, therefore, deserved same support the government offered public schools to help sustain their operations. Nana Kwadwo Somiah ll, the Chief of Sefwi Ntakamu, who chaired the event, emphasized the need for the government to provide support to the various private schools to help empower them to continue to provide quality education in the country. The two-day annual general conference of the Association, sort to assess members' performance during the year under review and strategize for the next year. It was attended by heads of private schools across the 16 regions.

Source: Ghana News Agency