Education Sector Annual Review 2005

1. Education Sector Annual Review2005 Access to Education - Recommendations Technical Group Presentation

2. Access to EducationKey Enrolment Indicators

3. Access to EducationGeneral • The GER alone should not be used for enrolment but the Net Enrolment Rate should also be considered and factored into next years AESOP. • Increase coverage of census to cover all public and private schools at all levels (Pre – school, Basic, SSS & Tertiary) to collect accurate and comprehensive educational statistics data • Pass legislation to ensure compliance by private schools to submit educational statistics • Sensitisation of both private and public schools during National Census Day for data collection and registration. • All levels of private Basic Schools (Nursery – kindergarten – primary - JSS etc.) should be properly registered with GES.

4. Access to EducationPre - School • The policy of attaching 2 pre – school classrooms to each primary school should be implemented. • Guidelines should be provided to all districts to help in establishing Pre – Schools • Each primary school should have a few feeding kindergartens with appropriate and adequate teachers and infrastructure support. • Recruit and train additional pre – school teachers and upgrade existing ones • Educate the public and sensitise communities to send their kids to pre – school since most of these kids are pre – dominantly in the rural areas. • Involve the traditional authorities and the churches to persuade parents to send their kid to school. • Utilise existing community facilities such churches, chief palaces, community centres / facilities for pre – school enrolment.

5. Access to EducationPrimary • Using the results of the school mapping exercise provide at least one feeding pre – school for a cluster of villages which do not have any. • Provide Complementary Basic Education for those out of school children above 6 years and mainstream them into the formal education after preparation. • Set up satellite schools for pre-school and Primary (P1 to P3) within communities which are far from the main schools. • Provide differentiated resources to the deprived areas in order to enable them meet the national targets.

6. Access to EducationJSS • Calculation of JSS GER should be based on those on enrolment at P6 but not on population within the age bracket (i.e. transition from P6 to JSS1). • Provide at least one JSS for a cluster of 3 primary schools • Provide accessible teachers accommodation at all levels in deprived areas • Enhance post – basic training and continuing education in the SSS / TVET and informal sector apprenticeship training to ensure self – employability after JSS in order to reduce dropout rate. • Improving teaching and learning and deployment adequate subject teachers to reduce repetition rate due to poor performance at the JSS level. • Ensure timely provision of capitation grants to ensure student retention and transition. • Adopt cohort analysis to determine repetition, transition and survival / completion rates at all levels • Continue to provide scholarships programme to increase girl enrolment at the Basic levels.

7. Access to EducationSpecial Education • Conduct studies to inventorise the variety and numbers of the children with special needs to improve the calculation of GER and GPI for Special Education. • Strengthen the post – basic schools for those children with special needs (currently limited to only basic schools). • Rehabilitate existing facilities and construct more schools for special education to mainstream children with mild to moderate disabilities in basic schools. • Train more teachers at all levels for special education and inclusive education teachers • Provide user friendly facilities and adequate equipments and textbooks for special education • Provide additional incentives to motivate Teachers of special education • Organise sensitisation workshop for the public and parents of children with special needs to increase awareness and minimize social stigmatization. • Increase screening and identification of children with special needs all levels.

8. Access to EducationSSS • GER should include private schools to give a true reflection at the SSS level - GER is misleading if it excludes those JSS graduates attending TVET institutions. • Transition rates from JSS to SSS should be calculated to give better information on access to enrolment. • Improve and expand facilities for females at all schools • Provide additional schools for girls or and expand existing ones to increase enrolment. • Establish a system at the JSS level to enable / encourage re-sits by applicants (at their own cost).

9. Access to EducationNFED • NFED should collaborate with SpED in assisting learners with special needs. • Provide adequate incentives to facilitators in order to increase NFED enrolment

10. Access to EducationTeacher Education • Expand existing teacher training facilities to train more teachers to meet the planned targeted enrolments at all levels. • Expand the modular system as an alternative way to train more teachers in all districts. • Expand the distance learning education and sandwich programmes and make it attractive for training or upgrading of more teachers - Sandwich courses should be organised during the vacation days to minimize interruptions) • Train student teachers to acquire certificate programmes for teaching at the pre – school level. • For retention in the training colleges, the bonding – redemption system should be strictly enforced. • Develop dual career path for teachers to enable them to continue to be in the classroom whilst progressing their career (promotion).

11. Access to EducationTertiary Education • Expand facilities and human resources capacities in all tertiary institutions. • Develop national manpower requirements and labour market information systems to determine the manpower needs to guide tertiary institutions enrolments. • Target resource allocation to the tertiary sector based on the national manpower requirements. • Expansion of the tertiary sector should be aligned with continued cost – sharing activities, in order for recurrent public expenditure on tertiary education to be controlled. • Increase the number of students enrolling in Science & Technology courses through the use of incentive schemes. • Polytechnics should focus and implement the CBT systems as per the TVET policy to meet the needs of the country. • The Accreditation Board should review the entrance requirements for the private universities, especially the use of access course as the basis for entry into the university.