Kumasi, June 17, GNA - Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, the Minister of Education, has attributed challenges facing the education sector to system failures as a result of ineffective and unclear administrative management practices. Speaking at the opening of the 4th annual management retreat for managers of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Kumasi on Thursday, Mrs Mould-Iddrisu said there was the need for 93a whole systematic change in t= he way things are done in the education sector".

The five-day retreat is under the theme 93strategizing for quality education delivery, new frontiers." The Minister mentioned some of the challenges facing the sector as teacher absenteeism, loss of contact hours, delays in promotion of personne= l and processing of their data and ineffective data management system. The others are administrative bottlenecks, encroachment of school lands, poor maintenance culture, high teacher attrition rate and inadequate qualified teachers in the classroom.

She said the huge investment in the provision of infrastructure and other social interventions would not yield the desired results if effective management of human and material resources are not efficiently practiced in the sector. Mrs Mould-Iddrisu, however, said the government was not daunted of the huge investment it is making in the education sector. Ms Benedicta Naana Biney, the Acting Director General of GES, said the retreat aimed at assessing the sector's performance and to reposition its= elf in the provision of quality education delivery to meet the country's development challenges. She appealed to managers in the education sector to device innovative and effective strategies to ensure monitoring and supervision at all levels= .. Professor Agyewodin Adu-Gyamfi Ampem, Chairman of the GES Council, advised the GES management to take pragmatic decisions that would meet the demands of the public in the 21st century.