EVOLUCION DE LOS PRECIOS PAGADOS AL PRODUCTOR

A third issue relating to strategies supporting management as reported by the educational stakeholders is educational decentralisation. According to Akyeampong, et al., (2007) decentralisation is intended to improve operational efficiency and promote a more responsive approach to education service delivery at the district, community and

126 school level. Further, the informants suggested that there were indications that this was not proceeding satisfactorily:

The issue is that if you want us to take ownership of our schools and everything then at the district level we should be able to hire and fire. We should take control over paying the teachers, employing them, firing them when they are not performing. Section 4(2) of the Ghanaian Constitution states: “A District Assembly shall have power for the discharge of any of its functions.” As there isn‟t complete decentralisation all salaries are still processed centrally in Accra and whether a teacher is not performing or has vacated post, sometimes the salary continues to come. (Interview at Wa: 22.03.10)

To further explain the incomplete decentralisation process, the informants referred to patterns of education delivery which is characterized by a top-down approach, where decisions are taken at the centre and expected to be implemented at all schools irrespective of their peculiar circumstances (Maikish & Gershberg, 2008). However, according to an informant (Interview at Wa: 22.03.10) resources allocated from GES Headquarters to the District Education Offices are based on performance targets stated by Districts in their action plans. GES report (Ghana Education Service, 2004, June)

states that the decentralisation of the management of the sector‟s budget is part of the

FCUBE program:

When these districts have been provided with their budget allocations, they lodge the funds at local banks, and draw action plans, which are approved by their DEOCs and implement them without reference to GES Headquarters. „Non-ready districts‟ on the other hand have their resources lodged at the Regional Directorates. They have to prepare work plans and accompanying documents for implementation. Regional Directors supervise the implementation activities. (p. 4)

Head teachers‟ survey data indicate that 78% of JHSs within the study are rural schools and inadequately resourced. A comment of one informant on the decentralisation process:

More power has been given to the District Assembly. We all are under them. I think the District Assembly has more than they can offer. They are constrained. If government is now saying that we should turn to the Assembly to address our needs and we are not careful the Assembly will be overwhelmed. This is a problem. (Interview at Tumu: 09.03.10)

The informants recognised that the education decentralisation policy has empowered District Assemblies; however, they do not have total autonomy. The informants are of the view that a lot of time should be taken to make the public and communities aware of this challenging role of the District Assembly, and the idea of ownership of schools, and to know the implications of what owning schools mean.

The data indicated that all executive responsibility for the provision and management of basic and senior secondary schools is vested in the District Assembly. The leaders were convinced that the Assembly has an overwhelming role. One educational leader commented on the expenditure pattern of the Assembly and said that the GES alone takes the greater share of the common fund that is allocated to the Assembly and yet GES is unable to satisfy its needs. So there is a gap. As the informants said, if things are not working, then targets will never be met.

Ghana has 10 Regional and 138 District Education Offices (Maikish & Gershberg, 2008). These Education Offices represent the Ministry of Education and, are responsible for implementing policies. The signal that instituted the decentralisation policy is in “Article 240 (1) of the Constitution of Ghana which provides that Ghana shall have a system of local government administration which shall, as far as practicable, be decentralised” (Government of Ghana, 1992). It is worth noting that while the education administration delivery is characterised by a top-down approach, the local government arrangement encourages a bottom-up, participatory approach. Both approaches are in operation and for that reason there is ambiguity over the dividing line between centralised and decentralised administrative strategies.

Further, the informants revealed that the Region has printed out a monitoring and supervisory school inspection schedule for all circuit supervisors. They said that is a schedule which requires that circuit supervisors spend at least two days in each school collecting all necessary school data. The informants suggested a change of name from circuit supervisor to „circuit supporter‟ of schools. They explained that as the circuit supervisors go round to look at how teachers teach, and also look at how head teachers carry out administration they offer support in areas where they may be lacking. They were confident that if the circuit supervisor makes the head teacher know that they come not to inspect and find fault, but to offer support, there would be better collaboration.

National Inspectorate Board (NIB)

A fourth strategy employed to support monitoring and administration of teacher supervision is the establishment of the National Inspectorate Board (NIB). The informants said the NIB initiative was included in the new Education Act (Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT, 2010). The informants explained that when an Act like the NIB is passed; a Legislative Instrument (L/I) is required to guide its implementation. The informants explained that the legislative instrument in respect of that Act has not been passed by parliament. Further, the data indicated that this Education Reform of 2007 was launched by a previous government. The leaders

128 indicated that the current government is not particularly committed to implementing Act 778. The informants explained that for instance, the Act 778 stipulates that SHS education is for four years, the current government wants it to remain three years, so instead of issuing the legislative instrument for its implementation, because they want it amended, some of the statements cannot be carried out (Interview at Wa: 22.03.10).

Communication Process

The fifth and final issue raised by the informants related to communication of policy change to head teachers and classroom teachers. The educational leaders said before the new policy was written, there was a stakeholders meeting. Then experts developed the new syllabus and objective. The leaders said that after everything had been printed, they were distributed to all schools since they claimed that is part of the process of policy dissemination. The leaders also added that trainers from the regions were trained so that they could train districts‟ officers, and the districts to train the head teachers and the head teachers to train their teachers on how to follow the new curriculum. The assumption that trainers would go back to their districts to train their schools about the reform has become an issue. On the issue of expected workshops for head teachers that are still pending the informants said, if the head teachers are saying that they were not trained, then the fault is coming from the District. The leaders were of the opinion that GES at the District did not do their work. However, the leaders were quite emphatic when they said that it is not everything about the policy that concerns the classroom teacher. They are of the view that the classroom teacher‟s concern should be the syllabus which is to be taught (Interview at Accra: 12.04.10). Stakeholders expressed the view that the reforms are major and a lot of time is required for debate, dialogue and consensus building. Additionally, roles of teachers, parents, assemblies and the entire major stakeholders concerned in the education reform, needed to have been determined for easy participation in the implementation process.

Key finding 6.5

The fifth and final key finding indicates that building teacher capacity enabled further professional development, while the District Teacher Support Team fostered better organisation of in-service training. However, there were unresolved attempts at decentralisation as well as the need to establish the role of the National Inspectorate Board. The communication process though vital to policy dissemination passes through several layers of the educational bureaucracy.

Summary

This chapter complements the findings reported in chapter five from educational leaders and stakeholders at district level by examining the findings derived from interviews of educational leaders and stakeholders at regional-central levels. The five key findings from the interviews of these leaders indicate some aspects of successful policy implementation and highlight key barriers to quality education.

The first key finding is that both FCUBE and Education Reform 2007 have made positive contributions towards access to education through the interventions in place to enhance enrolments and retention. However, the problem of dropout at JHS still persists due to insufficient family support.

The second key finding indicates that two significant barriers to quality education include high levels of teacher absenteeism due to low levels of teacher professionalism and inadequate supervision, and inadequate ICT and teaching resources to support policy implementation.

Thirdly, the data indicated that the schools experience difficulty in accessing an adequate supply of specialist teachers for core subjects and to teach French and the local language, „Sissale‟. The leaders indicated that the District Assembly should sponsor more students to study specialist subject at the College of Education.

The fourth key finding shows that while Reform 2007 enhanced access and participation in teacher education, there were still constraints regarding college applicants‟ awareness of programs of study offered by different colleges, quota systems for enrolments in the colleges‟ lack of control of the curriculum.

The fifth key finding indicates that building teacher capacity enabled further professional development, while the District Teacher Support Team fostered better organisation of in-service training. However, there were unresolved attempts at decentralisation as well as the need to establish the role of the National Inspectorate Board.

Communication process though vital to policy dissemination passes through several layers of the educational bureaucracy. There are peculiar attitudes and behaviours towards information and information use.

The sixth and final key finding is about centralised structures that have been re-defined to take newly established institutions such as the NIB, NTC and of course DEOC which only needs to be reactivated.

130 Key findings emerging from this chapter thus show that some aspects of the policy have been effectively implemented. There are nevertheless, significant barriers to implementation of some themes and the senior managers still believe that they fail to gain maximum cooperation from those at the lowest levels of the education system. The next chapter presents a discussion of findings and answering of research questions.

CHAPTER SEVEN: