
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, on Friday launched the National Education Leadership Training Institute (NELI) in Takoradi in the Western Region.
NELI, primarily is to create a permanent independent institution dedicated to educational leadership training, offering long-term, tailor-made leadership programmes, with certification for current and aspiring school heads and educational managers.
Again, it seeks to improve students’ outcomes by developing effective leadership in education sector, ensure education leaders are equipped with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary for high-performance stewardship of learning experience in all schools and educational institutions.
In his address, Dr Adutwum stressed that Ghana needed a brand new crop of leadership to drive the country’s education system to improve and transform learning outcomes.
He argued that Ghana could not afford to remain with the old ways on educational administration, adding, “We need to develop a new era in the education space.”
The Minister said, “We need a new leadership to run the education system; they should know something about robotics. We need to expose our educational leaders to many things so that we succeed.”
Tracing South Korea’s development path, he said while Ghana dwelt on industrialisation, the Asian country focused on education strategy that drove industry and improved growth outcomes, stating “You can’t talk about 1D1F without education.”
Dr Adutwum said Ghana could no more rely on leadership developed through apprenticeship alone, but must prioritise purposefully-trained leaders committed to improving learning outcomes.
He noted that the trend of the performance in schools should be reviewed, saying “we need to do more.”
“We must expedite the process of replicating successful educational experiences such as the Wesley Girls experience, to foster more effective school leadership. This is precisely where NELI comes into play,” the Minister added.
The Coordinator of NELI, Dr Kwadwo Addo, mentioned that two manuals of NELI, the Participants’ manual and Faculty Handbook, had been developed with course modules including strategic leadership course, instructional leadership course, change leadership course and operational leadership course.
A representative of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Dr Charles Yeboah, expressed the belief that Ghana had a unique opportunity to undertake the new leadership journey to change and improve classroom instructions.
This, he said, required leaders who are motivated and confident, saying “we can’t wait to start NELI”.
The Director-General, Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) University of Cape Coast (UCC), Dr Michael Boakye, also suggested that the future of NELI rested on a 100- per cent performance, domestic financing and a legislation to ensure sustainability.
“We need Parliament to back NELI so that no matter which political party is in power, the programme can continue with the visions and strategies,” he said.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI