Kumasi, March 23. GNA - Government has been urged to mobilize national and international potentials for the formulation of plans to ensure the development of basic education. The Education for all Policy (EFA) must be integrated into all public sector strategies for the elimination of poverty, attainment of national progress and to ensure that the nation achieves 50 per cent improvement at all levels of adult literacy and education for all by 2015. Mr. John Nyoagbe, Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), said these during the closing ceremony of a three-day workshop on an Inter Action In-service Training Course for Teachers held at the GNAT hall in Kumasi at the weekend. The training which was dubbed 'The Nkabom II', and organized by GNAT and the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) was a response project to the EFA goals defined at the Dakar Forum of 2000.

The workshop was attended by 44 participants drawn from the ten regions of Ghana and topics treated included English Language, Primary Mathematics and Science, Library and Information Communication Technology Studies, Citizenship Education and Early childhood development.

It was aimed among others at increasing the skills and competency of the participants in basic education. Mr. Nyoagbe said the goals of the Dakar Forum included expanding and improving comprehensive Early Childhood Education and Care, particularly for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. He said the Forum also was aimed at ensuring that by 2015, all children particularly girls in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to free and compulsory and good quality primary education.

The Deputy General Secretary said that GNAT and CTF had jointly helped to improve the skills and competencies of most teachers and provided some schools with teaching and learning materials. Mr. Joseph Onyinah, Regional Director for Education, urged teachers to up-grade their skills to enable them to cope with the New Educational Reform.

He called on the Ghana Education Service to organize frequent in-service training courses for teachers to enhance their competencies. 23 March 09