Parliament passes controversial Ghana’s Pre-Tertiary Education Bill

Parliament Thursday, December 16, 2020, after a thorough review successfully passed the Pre-tertiary Education Bill despite pre-tertiary teacher unions’ call for the central government to suspend the Pre-tertiary School Education Bill.

The Pre-Tertiary Education Bill aims to provide a decentralised pre-tertiary education system that will produce individuals with the requisite knowledge, skills, and values, to become productive citizens for national development as well as establish a technical and vocational education and training service, among others.

The Pre-Tertiary Education Bill, 2019 is made up of 102 Clauses and one Schedule which will help the central government to shift the emphasis from grammar education to technical and vocational education in Ghana.

The Schedule lists the Technical and Vocational Education, and Training institutions currently under the various Ministries, which shall be absorbed into the Service.

Under section 32(3) of the Bill, the Head of the Local Government Service will appoint heads and staff of the District Education Unit as well as be responsible for promotion, transfer, discipline, and dismissal of the staff of the District Education Unit.

Under section 32(4) of the Bill, inter-district transfer of a headteacher or staff of a basic school can only be undertaken by the Head of the Local Government Service whilst section 25(2) and 26(2) of the Bill stipulated that the President of the Republic shall be appointing Regional Directors and their Deputies and determining their terms and conditions of service.

Also, according to section 30(1c) of the Pre-tertiary Education Bill, the preparation, administration, and control of budgetary allocations of the basic schools shall be determined by the District Assembly.

The passage of the tertiary education Bill means that every Ghanaian child will obtain a minimum of secondary education, which will go a long way to enhance the human resource capacity of the nation.

Parliament’s passage of the Bill follows the Pre-tertiary education critical phase in education delivery which marks the foundation for the preparation of students to enter the tertiary education stream for further academic pursuits.

It is for this reason that part of the educational reforms introduced by the government are aimed at ensuring effective management and supervision of pre-tertiary schools, hence the introduction of the Pre-tertiary education Bill.