Tag: GES

The African Education Watch is calling for the cancellation of the teachers’ promotion examination conducted on February 20 and 21 2020 following the alleged leakage of the examination questions.

According to the group, the leakage has compromised the integrity of the promotional system and as a result, the examination must be cancelled and rewritten.

Speaking on Starr FM today, the Executive Director of Africa Watch Kofi Asare said the GES must re-conduct another promotional test that has the credibility to save their image.

”Our concern is that first of all the GES is the biggest public institution in Ghana and it is striving for excellence and one of its mantra is to have a highly professional teaching service. Now if you want to high professional teaching service you need to make sure your promotional system are of integrity.”

“The current situation where teacher promotional exams leak 48 hours prior to the examination cannot have integrity. So, the GES has to cancel the exams and rewrite it to save its own image and enhance the professional image of teachers and also the integrity of services of the promotional system”.

African Education Watch also called on the Ministry of Education to investigate the circumstances leading to the wide public leakage of the tests conducted by the Institute of Education Planning and Administration of the UCC, for the GES and make its findings public.

The Education Service announced the first-ever aptitude test for staff promotion which was to replace the hitherto face-to-face interview sessions that were fraught with multiple challenges.

The Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, in an earlier interview said the new promotion process was being introduced to ensure that the about 35,000 GES staff applied for promotion every year went through the process fairly, transparently and based on competence.

February 20-21 were dates scheduled for the promotion aptitude test of qualified staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES). GES staff participated in the two-day promotion test at 48 centres throughout the country.

But it emerged from media reports that questions for the examinations set by the Ghana Education Service (GES) as well as the answers for promotion of teachers leaked hours to the examinations.

Source: primenewsghana.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has described as distasteful recent sex scandals involving some Ghanaian female second-cycle students, which had gone viral on social media.

“We unreservedly condemn such acts as they contravened the norms and values of the Ghanaian society,” Mr. Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General, GES, noted.

The authorities, he said, had taken a serious view of the issue and observed that most, unfortunately, majority of such acts involved female students.

“The GES would not countenance such humiliating acts. Surely, the authorities would crack the whip as and when necessary,” he told participants at the 75th-anniversary celebration of the Effiduase Senior High Commercial School (EFFISCO), Effiduase, in the Sekyere-East District of the Ashanti Region.

Mr. Boateng advised authorities of second-cycle institutions to as a matter of urgency, strengthen their guidance and counseling units, to be able to perform their duties efficiently, especially in the area of sensitizing students to conform to societal norms in their behaviour.

“Sometimes, some of these disgraceful practices are done out of ignorance and peer pressure,” the GES Deputy Director-General noted.

Commenting on the recent directive to restrict the payment of Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) dues and levies, he said the authorities would not back down on its resolve in spite of pleas from certain quarters.

“We will resist any attempt to go back to the old ways because it is the responsibility of the PTA to explore innovative ways of securing funds for their projects,” Mr. Boateng insisted.

“The lack of PTA dues and levies should not be a barrier to finding innovative ways to fund school projects,” he remarked.

 

Source: GNA

The Wa Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Theresa Ninang Sung-Abo, who was announced by the GES on Thursday, 13 February 2020 as the interim Regional Director following the interdiction of the substantive Regional Director, Mr Duncan Nsor, has died.

Mr Nsor was interdicted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for misconduct while investigations are conducted into his action.

He is alleged to have engaged in acts of corruption.

Mr Nsor was asked to step aside for investigations into allegations of bribery in the appointment of heads of some second-cycle schools in the region.

The Wa Municipal Director of Education will assume temporary responsibility for education in the region.

Specific allegations

1. Circumstances surrounding the auctioning of a truck belonging to the Wa School for the Deaf, which vehicle, at the time of the auctioning, was under his care; and his refusal to inform the school and the Director-General of the development;

2. Allegations of bribery in the appointment of some heads of some second-cycle schools in the region; and

3. Alleged deduction of monies from some allowances due to some teachers in the region.

The Wa Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Theresa Ninang Sung-Abo, who was announced by the GES on Thursday, 13 February 2020 as the interim Regional Director following the interdiction of the substantive Regional Director, Mr Duncan Nsor, has died.

Mr Nsor was interdicted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for misconduct while investigations are conducted into his action.

He is alleged to have engaged in acts of corruption.

Mr Nsor was asked to step aside for investigations into allegations of bribery in the appointment of heads of some second-cycle schools in the region.

The Wa Municipal Director of Education will assume temporary responsibility for education in the region.

Specific allegations

1. Circumstances surrounding the auctioning of a truck belonging to the Wa School for the Deaf, which vehicle, at the time of the auctioning, was under his care; and his refusal to inform the school and the Director-General of the development;

2. Allegations of bribery in the appointment of some heads of some second-cycle schools in the region; and

3. Alleged deduction of monies from some allowances due to some teachers in the region.

Source: classfmonline.com

The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has interdicted the Upper West Regional Director of Education, Duncan Nsor.

A letter addressed to him dated 12th February 2020 said the interdiction takes place with “immediate effect”.

This is to enable the Service to carry out investigations into a number of allegations levelled against him including bribery.

“Your interdiction is to facilitate investigations into some allegations levelled against you, which include;

“1. Circumstances surrounding the auctioning of a track belonging to Wa School for the Deaf, which vehicle at the time of the auctioning was under your care and your refusal to inform the school and the Director-General of the development.

“2. Allegations of bribery in the appointment of some Heads of some second cycle schools in the Region.

“3. Alleged deduction of monies from some allowances due to some teachers in the region.”

Mr. Nsor has been ordered to hand-over the office to the Wa Municipal Director of Education, who has been directed to take temporal responsibility for the Region during the period of the interdiction.

The interdicted director is expected to appear before an investigation committee being set up by the Director-General of GES.

“It is expected that you will co-operate fully in this exercise,” the letter copied to other stakeholders said.

 

Source: 3news.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has revised its promotion processes, with the aim to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The management of the GES said all staff of the service due for promotion would now undergo an aptitude test for all ranks from Principal Superintendent to Deputy Director.

“Officers who get promoted to deputy directorship shall be expected to attend face-to-face interviews if they desire to become heads of schools or any other position that may require interviewing,” the Director-General of the GES, Professor Opoku-Amankwa, told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra yesterday.

He said the review had been done after extensive deliberations and consultations with key stakeholders, with the approval of the GES Council and in accordance with regulations of the Public Services Commission (PSC).

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Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said the new promotion process was being introduced for a good reason — to ensure that the about 35,000 GES staff who applied for promotion every year went through the process fairly, transparently and based on competence.

The switch to aptitude tests for promotion has been necessitated by the tonnes of petitions the GES receives every year from teachers alleging that the performance appraisals and interviews used for promotions are fraught with victimisation and corruption.

Applicants for 2019

Last year, 47,323 applicants submitted documentation for promotion, the director-general disclosed, adding that the applicants were yet to attend interviews in that regard.

He gave the breakdown as follows: 4,413 for the rank of Deputy Director, 10,724 for Assistant Director I, 26,876 for Assistant Director II, 3,816 for Principal Superintendent, while 1,494 applied for non-teaching ranks.

He said every year, “the GES sets up about 150 panels across the country, with each panel having five members”.

Each panel interviewed eight people a day, according to PSC regulations, and they worked for three to six months to finish up all applicants, he added.

Petitions

“Meanwhile, every year, the GES receives almost a thousand petitions on promotions, all levelled against GES staff in the district, regional and national headquarters, as well as interview panels across the country,” he said.

Oti, Volta teachers fume over GHS120 stipend for GES workshop

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa explained that the petitions included allegations of victimisation and corruption, explaining that apart from the complaints, the process was tedious and expensive.

“Based on these and many other reasons, the GES management, in June last year, initiated the move to reform the promotion process within the confines of PSC guidelines.

“The details and input into the new process have been agreed on with teacher unions and accepted by the GES Council,” he added.

He said the management had done extensive education and sent out announcements on the new promotion process, “which have been received and accepted in good faith”.

He said the least opportunity he had with teachers, he touched on the subject, adding: “Recently, we did training for SHS core teachers and I used the opportunity of my visit to talk to them about the new promotion process and they agreed.”

The GES intended to do a road show from the first week of next month to educate and inform teachers on the details of the new process, he hinted.

“The areas where questions will be generated are the same areas they prepare on for the interviews and the proposed examination is between 45 and 60 minutes for each rank,” Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said.

Areas of aptitude test

The director-general said, for instance, that the aptitude test for those seeking promotion to the ranks of Principal Superintendent, Assistant Director I and II would cover knowledge of the ministry and the GES, school/classroom management, theories of learning, assessing and evaluation, contemporary issues in education, as well as current and general knowledge.

He said those applying for the rank of Deputy Director would, “in addition to the above, be tested in education administration and management”, explaining that those areas were the same as those used in promotion.

Prof. Opoku-Amankwa hinted that the examination was fixed for February 20 and 21 and that the results should be ready by the end of March this year.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Teachers from the Oti and Volta regions who attended the four-day workshop organised by the Ghana Education Service (GES) at the University of Ghana are demanding explanations for their poor treatment by the service.

They are part of the over 2,000 teachers who were left stranded at the university on Monday for what was meant to be day one of the workshop.

After completing the workshop, the teachers are now lamenting over stipends that were given them by the service.

One of them who spoke to Citi News said: “[the teachers from] Dodowa, Legon, etc; those people have been given GHS100. Then somebody coming from the Volta Region is given GHS120. The question is what goes into determining the amount?”

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“Someone from Hohoe was asked to take GHS120. Someone from Haatso where you can even walk to the house took GHS100. Is it fair?” another angry teacher questioned.

The GES has already been compelled to apologise for the poor treatment some teachers taking part in a four-day workshop have endured.

Complaints started on Monday when hundreds of teachers from three regions vented their anger at the service over their treatment at the venue for the workshop.

GES apologises for treating SHS teachers poorly

Form 3 Core Subject teachers from the Greater Accra, Oti and Volta regions are taking part in the workshop.

Similar complaints from 2019

There were similar complaints in August 2019 when basic school teachers were angry with the GES over a GHS50 offered them after a five-day training workshop on the new curriculum for basic schools.

The GES subsequently disbursed a further transportation allowance of GHS50 per person to participants of the training programme.

Source: citinewsroom.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has dismissed reports that it has contracted a foreign firm to design the new school uniforms to be used in junior high schools from the 2019/2020 academic year.

It said, “it has not imported, neither, has it contracted any individual, locally or internationally to bring in a new uniform for the Junior high schools”.

Earlier this year, the Service announced that new uniforms will be donned by pupils, scrapping the existing one which has been in place for more than three decades.

A statement signed by the Head of Public Relations at GES, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, said the Director-General in April, while introducing the new uniforms, made it clear that parents are to access them from the open market.

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It also stressed that the uniforms will not be compulsory as there is a plan to phase them out over a period.

“No student will be prevented from attending school when the 2019/2020 academic year begins in September.”

The uniforms were introduced as part of reforms of the education sector.

GES Director-General Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa had insisted that the move was to make the pupils “to start seeing themselves as secondary school students; they are in lower secondary”.

Source: 3news.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has released appointment letters for teachers who applied for recruitment into the service.

According to the GES, the latest recruitment is targeted at persons who have completed and passed the College of Education exams in 2018 and have also passed their licensure exams in 2018/ 2019.

Read: GES recruits 14,500 teachers

A statement issued by the GES on Wednesday also mentioned persons who have completed mandatory notional service and have applied for recruitment into the Service are those being considered for the appointment.

“The appointment letters have been released. Appointment letters can be accessed on www.gespromotions.gov.gh (fees apply),” the press release noted.

Appointees have therefore been asked to report to the Regional Directors with their appointment letters and certificates for further directives.

 

Source: 3news.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has given approval for the extension of the mid-semester break, from November 12, 2019 to November 15, 2019.

Students are therefore expected to return to school over the weekend to ensure, that full academic work resumes on Monday, November 18, 2019.

A release signed by Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, Director-General of the GES and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the approval was upon a request from the leadership of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).

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It said the directive equally applied to all SHS one and two students on the Gold Track, who were expected to report to school on November 12, 2019.

The release said Regional Directors were by the directive to ensure, that all heads of SHS across the country, prepare their schools for academic work to resume on November 18, 2019.

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Trained teachers who completed in 2018 from the Colleges of Education will be posted to the classrooms to begin work by the end of November 2019 the Ghana Education Service (GES) has announced.

2018 trained teachers to be posted by November GES

The eligible candidates are those who passed the Teacher Licensure Examinations and have completed their national service.

The GES in a statement also said university graduates with Basic Education and Early Childhood certificates who have passed the Licensure Examinations and completed national service will be considered for employment as well.

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The GES has cautioned the teachers not to pay any money to anybody who promise to facilitate their posting process.

Source: classfmonline.com

The Ghana Education Service says it has commenced the process of posting teachers who completed Colleges of Education in 2018.

Only trainees who have written and passed the Teacher Licensure Examination, and are completing their National Service are eligible.

“Candidates who duly applied online will be shortlisted and postings effected by the end of November 2019,” the GES said in a statement on Tuesday.

Read: GES releases teacher postings

“We also wish to state that there will be consideration for university graduates with Basic Education and Early Childhood certificates who have passed the Licensure Examinations and completed National Service as well,” the statement added.

The GES cautioned trainees against paying monies to persons who promise to facilitate their posting process.

The Licensure Exams

The trainee teachers resisted the licensing policy when it was being introduced.

Trainees in Koforidua who were part of the 2018 completing class demonstrated in the Eastern regional capital, demanding that the policy not start with them.

The National Teaching Council (NTC) however, rejected their demands.

The council said the target group had a choice to either participate in the process or exempt themselves.

Executive Secretary of the Council, Dr Evelyn Oduro denied claims that government was rushing the implementation of the policy. On the contrary, she said teachers have been given ample time to prepare for the licensing regime.

National Service

Again, the trainees resisted when the government said they had to go through the National Service programme.

According to them, it is uncomprehensive why the government will ask them to do national service while they have already undergone a one-year teaching service without pay.

Read: Teachers exposed Education Minister on CSE John Jinapor

The trainees told JoyNews during a protest march in Accra that, the government promised to post them once they have undergone the licensure exams.

The Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, however, told them they would undertake the national service if they wanted to gain employment.

“Everybody who has gone through the tertiary system does national service so you are going to do it…and if you do not do it, you do not get employed…so you are going to do it,” Dr. Opoku Prempeh added.

 

Source: Myjoyonline.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has released the postings for teachers who have returned from their study leave.

Those teachers who were on leave with pay are supposed to log-on to http://gespromotions.gov.gh, to access their various postings.

A release, signed by Mrs Adwoa Van-Vicker the Director for Human Resource and copied to the Ghana News Agency, directed them to pay GHS10.00 through a known MTN mobile money account.

They are supposed to print their postings details and then submit them to their regional directors in the respective regions of their new postings, the release said.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has set requirement guidelines to recruit qualified newly trained teachers for the 2019/2020 academic year.

Per the guidelines, candidates who wish to be considered for employment as teachers under the GES should have completed and passed the final-year College of Education Examination.

Additionally, the candidates must have completed the mandatory national service and passed the Teacher Licensure Examination.

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Such candidates should be prepared and ready to work wherever they will be posted by the GES.

Graduates

A release signed and issued by the Director of the Human Resource Management Division (HRMD) of the GES, Mrs Adjoa Van Vicker, stated that “persons who do not meet all four stated requirements will not be shortlisted”.

In addition, it said there were limited vacancies for graduates with Early Childhood/Basic Education qualification who met the requirements for consideration.

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Application forms

Qualified candidates, the statement said, should complete an application form and upload the relevant certificates on www.gespromotions.gov.gh

It said qualified candidates had until September 15, 2019 to submit their application forms.

Source: ghanaguardian.com