The Executive Director of EduWatch, Kofi Asare says government must stop using the pupil-teacher ratio to determine the class size in Basic Schools.
He suggested the accurate data gathered in real-time about pupils and teachers during teaching hours should inform the class size.
Mr. Asare reacting to a survey conducted by Campaign Against Privatization And Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE), says government schools are becoming unattractive due to challenges because such as overcrowding and lack of basic school needs.
This situation, he maintains is making parents prioritise private schools over public ones.
Richard Korshie, a convenor of CAPOE explained that the research was conducted with a focus on the privatisation and commercialisation of education and the impact on quality education.
He observed that teachers cannot get access to every pupil due to large classes.
The survey looked at the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, the setbacks and the progress.
“The findings reveal that basically, we have very large class sizes which simply means teachers are doing what we call, babysitting not only teaching, because the larger the class, the more ineffective the teaching is. Because the teacher is teaching the child, not the class so if you need to have that rapport with individual children it means the class has to be manageable. It’s not every child that have the same IQ level which means as you vary your lessons, introduce more methods. If the number is very large you will not be able to reach every child, ” He said.
Among recommendations, the report suggested the scrapping of low-cost private schools and the retooling of education stakeholders to offer the best teaching and learning at all levels of education.
