What you need to know about the Ghana Education Service, GES

The Ghana Education Service (GES) was established, as part of the Public Service of Ghana, in 1974 by NRCD 247 and was subsequently amended by NRCD 252, 357 and SMCD 63. Under the fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana, these earlier legislations have been amended by Acts of Parliament, including Act 506 (1994) and Act 778 (2008). The GES is governed by a fifteen-member Council called the GES Council.

Vision Statement

Ghana Education Service seeks to create an enabling environment in all educational institutions and management positions that will facilitate effective teaching and learning and efficiency in the management for the attainment of the goals of the Service.

Mission Statement

To ensure that all Ghanaian children of school-going age are provided with inclusive and equitable quality formal education and training through effective and efficient management of resources to make education delivery relevant to the manpower needs of the nation.

Mandate of GES

GES is responsible for the implementation of approved national pre-tertiary educational policies and programs to ensure that all Ghanaian children of school-going age irrespective of tribe, gender, disability, religious and political affiliations are provided with inclusive and equitable quality formal education.

There are four (4) main programmes under the GES and these are:

• pre-tertiary education management including Headquarters Divisions, Regional and District directorates
• Basic Education, comprising Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High Schools
• Secondary Education comprising Senior high School (SHS) and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET)
• Special and Inclusive Education

Objectives of the GES

The objectives of GES are in accordance with the National Policy Objectives espoused in the Education Strategic Plan (ESP). The key objectives of the Service are as follows:

• Increase inclusive and equitable access to and participation in education at all levels
• Ensure provision of life skills training and management of personal hygiene, family life, gender, health, HIV/AIDS/STIs, etc.
• Improve the quality of teaching and learning
• Improve the Management of education service delivery

There are four (4) main programmes under the GES and these include:

• pre-tertiary education management including Headquarters Divisions, Regional and District directorates
• Basic Education, comprising Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High Schools
• Secondary Education comprising SHS and TVET
• Special and Inclusive Education

Meanwhile, Basic Education has been redefined to include Secondary Education as part of the Government’s new policy initiative on Pre-tertiary Education.

Functions of the GES

The functions of GES are as follows:

• To provide and oversee Basic Education (Pre-tertiary), Technical Education as well as Special Education
• To promote the efficiency and full development of talents among its members
• To carry out such other functions as are incidental to the attainment of the functions specified above.
• To maintain professional standards and the conduct of its personnel
• To recruit and post qualified teaching and non-teaching staff

5 Main Stakeholders of the GES

• Employees
• Unions
• Students
• Parents
• General Public

On-going Reforms in the GES

As part of efforts to promote quality pre-tertiary education service delivery, the following reforms have been or are being made:

• Re-alignment of the Teacher Education Division of GES as an agency under the Ministry of Education (now known as the National Teaching Council)
• Re-alignment of the Curriculum Research and Development Division of GES as an agency under the Ministry of Education (now known as the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment)
• Re-alignment of the Inspectorate Division of GES as an agency under the Ministry of Education (now called the National Inspectorate Board)
• Re-alignment of the Technical/Vocational Education Division (TVED) of GES as an agency under the Ministry of Education (to be named Ghana Technical Education Service)
• Creation of a new division of GES (to be called Management Service Division) which shall include Special and Inclusive Education, Guidance and Counselling and School Health Education Programme (SHEP)

GES Collaboration with Development Partners, Private Sector and Stakeholders

The following organisations and stakeholders are partnering the GES in the implementation of its programmes and activities:

• United Nations Children’s Fund (for Education Programme)
• United States Agency for International Development (for Partnerships for Education Project: Social Impact, Learning, Innovation, Improving Reading Performance in Primary Schools)
• United Kingdom for International Development (for Complementary Basic Education Programme)
• Belgium/TELEVIC (for Supply and Installation of Integrated E-learning Lab for 240 SHSs)
• Kreditanstalt Wiederaufbau (KfW)-( for Supporting Vocational Training: Voucher Programme)
• World Bank- (for Ghana Secondary Education Improvement Project)
• Kuwait-(for Expansion and Development of 26 Existing SHS Project)

Key Strategic Focus Areas within 4-Year Sector Medium-Term Plan of the GES

The following organisations and stakeholders are partnering the GES in the implementation of its programmes and activities:

• Pre-tertiary education management including Headquarters Divisions, Regional and District directorates
• Basic Education, comprising Kindergarten, Primary and Junior High Schools
• Secondary Education comprising SHS and TVET
• Special and Inclusive Education

GES Current Programmes

• Complimentary Basic Education (CBE) programme
• Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP)
• Special and Inclusive Education (SIE) programme
• Pre-tertiary Education Management programme

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Challenges, Prospects and Achievements of the GES

• Approximately 82% of the total GES budget is allocated for the payment of salaries crowding out other expenditures
• Inadequate furniture, especially at the basic school level
• Inadequate supply of sanitation facilities such as gender-friendly toilets/urinals, especially at the basic school level
• Inadequate infrastructure in over-subscribed Senior High Schools
• Inadequate logistics for effective monitoring and supervision
• Inadequate TLMs and core textbooks
• Lack of teachers to handle key subject areas like Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry
• Inadequate facilities for In-service Education and Training
• Inadequate Language experts and facilities for implementing the Language Policy
• Lack of science equipment in basic schools
• Non-release of transfer grant for the Staff Rationalisation Policy
• Delayed payment of salary arrears due to the Ministry of Finance’s policy on payment of three (3) months of salary arrears and which affects staff motivation
• To reduce the attrition rate through teacher motivation and increase the number of trained teachers through on-going programmes, such as the UTDBE
• To deploy more teachers to deprived areas, such as the three Northern regions of Ghana, to reduce the disparity in Pupil-Teacher Ratios (PTR)
• To resource the newly created districts with office and residential accommodation facilities, including vehicles, for District Directors
• To strengthen School Performance Appraisal Meetings in communities and to promote quality preparation of School Performance Improvement Plans (SPIPs)
• To introduce measures to reduce cost of utilities for second-cycle institutions
• To enforce the implementation of staff establishment norms so as to ensure that teachers in JHS/SHS cover a minimum of 24 periods a week
• There has been a successful implementation of the Government’s Free SHS programme
• There has been access to CBE classes for 182,652 out of school children over the last four-year period (2013/14-2016/17) with over 49.4% female participation
• There has been significant success in the project targets of the SEIP programme
• There has been 100 per cent increase in the Capitation grant for schools and the releases have been timely.