Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh and Tony Blair in a hearty chat in Dubai
THE MINISTER for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, popularly known as Napo, and ex-British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, have held fruitful talks in Dubai on Ghana’s educational sector.
The talks mainly centered on what should be done to help improve the standards of education in the country to boost national transformation.
The two dignitaries met during this year’s Global Educational and Skills Forum, which was graced by stakeholders in the educational sector across the globe in Dubai.
Tony Blair, who is the Founder and Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) for Global Change and Napo freely shared ideas concerning Ghana’s educational sector.
For the past year, the TBI has been actively supporting the government in attracting foreign direct investment into Ghana in the educational sector in particular.
President Akufo-Addo’s passion to transform education and boost human resource development in Ghana actually necessitated the meeting between Napo and Mr. Blair.
The talks between the two dignitaries mainly centered on the priorities of the Ministry of Education and how the TBI would be able to support to promote the president’s agenda of transforming the educational sector.
Napo highlighted the extent to which technology was being used in teaching and learning, and the possibility of TBI assisting to address some of the challenges in that regard.
The minister stated that if the right technology was employed in schools, data collection and analysis would become easier “and our work at the Ministry of Education will become easier and better”.
Napo also lamented how poor management and leadership in the running of public schools have remained a challenge in the educational sector in Ghana.
“This is the major difference in the success rate between the private basic schools and public schools”, the Minister for Education pointed out.
Napo also indicated to Mr. Blair that his ministry is currently working in collaboration with Varkey Foundation and some other organizations on developing school leadership and management training that would be mandatory for anyone aiming to manage or head a school.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi