Ho, Oct 20, GNA - Dr George Afeti, Executive Secretary of the National Inspectorate Board, (NIB) has observed that the low skills and literacy levels of the Ghanaian workforce represent an indictment on general performance in education in recent times. He said another indicator is the low transition rates from the lower tiers of education to higher levels.

Dr Afeti said only five in 10 of Junior High School pupils proceed to Senior High School and one is likely to acquire tertiary education of any kind. He was addressing the four-day 17th Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) in Ho, on Tuesday, on the theme: "Ensuring Quality Human Resource Development: The Role of Stakeholders." Dr Afeti said this situation is not acceptable since a country's state and tempo of development hinges on the quality of education available to its citizens.

Dr Afeti, whose is also designated as the Chief Inspector of Schools, said educational processes happening in varying setups must produce and sustain the production of dependable human capital. He said the implementation of the statutes establishing the National Inspectorate Board would see the organs of supervisory bodies within the Ghana Education Service (GES) being rehashed with the view to raising performance levels of teachers Dr Afeti observed that over the past eight years pass rates at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) had been between 40 and 50 per cent.

He said teacher supervision would be strengthened as the NIB assumes responsibility for quality control of education and that decision making in educational matters would begin to devolve to the districts. Mr George Jerry Hansen, National President of CODE, said its members as superintendents over the pre-tertiary education perform a crucial role in human resource development. He said delays in the release of the budget for the running of education put a lot of stress on the educational authorities. Mr Hansen called for a solution to office and residential accommodation problems of the district directorates, especially the newly created ones. Miss Benedicta Naana Biney, Acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, (GES) corroborated that some of the directorates had been working under stressful conditions. She spoke against the arbitrary imposition of levies on parents and also called on education authorities to liaise with local governments to tackle some of their problems. Members of the GES Council, whose three-day visit to the Volta Region coincided with the conference, were at the opening ceremony of the conference.