Education think-tank, Africa Education Watch has advised the Ghana Education Service (GES) to maintain the academic standards that the Achimota Preparatory School is noted for.
This admonishment follows GES’ takeover of the school after a court order.
The Executive Director of the think tank, Kofi Asare, said although the school will now be an institution providing free basic education, thereby granting access to more children in the community, the quality of teaching and learning should not be compromised.
The Achimota Preparatory School was, last Friday, locked up by GES officials after a court directive for it to take over the management of the school.
Speaking to Citi News, Kofi Asare said: “The concern of all stakeholders, especially parents, since last year when the tussle began, was the likelihood of the quality of academic performance dwindling in the event of them taking the school back, which is a fact. So the GES must give us the assurance that it is not only taking over the school and making it a free education school but is taking over the school and maintaining the quality it met.”
Mr. Asare said the GES must assure all stakeholders that the academic quality in the school will be sustained.
“The parents and the PTA in the school are focused on sustaining the quality they have been able to maintain over the past decades, and it will be in the best interest of the children and the promoters of the school even as GES takes over management of the school.”
Background
The ruling by the court was given on March 2020, according to a statement from the GES.
The Service explained that the land and building being occupied by the Achimota Preparatory School formed part of Achimota School Land per the Achimota School Ordinance No. 7 & 1948.
The preparatory school was established by some expatriates during the colonial era and for their children, staff of Achimota School and the University College of the Gold Coast.
Over time, the expatriates left the management of the school in the hands of locals who, from time to time, form a management committee to run the school as a private institution. APS has been operating that model to date.
The GES explained that “sometime in the 1960s, Achimota School granted a lease to APS to allow it to operate from the premises, which expired in 1970.”
In January 2020, amid the contentions, the Parent-Teacher Association of the Achimota Preparatory School said it would resist attempts by the GES to take over the school.
It has also accused the GES of acting in bad faith in the matter.
