Accra, Nov. 8, GNA - A national uniform standard assessment for basic schools is to begin in the first quarter of 2006 academic year, Mr Yaw Osafo- Maafo, Minister of Education and Sports, announced on Monday in Accra.

The initiative is a blend between the United States assessment of pupils' performance and Ghana's newly evolved standard method to be used to assess basic school pupils.

Mr Osafo-Maafo, who was speaking when Miss Pamela E. Bridgewater, US Ambassador to Ghana called on him in Accra, said the programme was aimed at ensuring that pupils in the various classes in rural schools measured up to their counterparts in urban schools.

External educationists would do the class-by-class assessment different from the present continuous assessment carried out by the various class teachers with its attendant deficiencies The US government would award scholarships, provide school materials and support distance education for teachers as her contribution towards realisation of this "hybrid" standard assessment. It would also ensure proper fusion of America's method of assessment to produce a "hybrid" of assessment for Ghana Mr Osafo-Maafo said the various measures instituted to provide education to the Ghanaian child underscored the government's realisation that quality education was the key to national development.

Miss Bridgewater lauded the Government for creating the environment for a significant economic growth, saying the situation was due to good governance and consistent education policy Miss Bridgewater, a former University Don, also commended the Government for instituting the annual national best teacher award, which she noted had dignified the profession