The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana today donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to the Ghana Education Service (GES) at a ceremony in Accra.

The donated PPE’s comprises 15,000 pieces of liquid soaps, 15,000 hand sanitizers, 66,000 transparent face (mask) shields and 5,000 Re-usable Face Mask.

All the items are to be distributed to schools and education offices across the country.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Chairperson for EC, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensah, said the Commission in its bid to ensure a free, fair and transparent election during the covid-19 season, procured the PPEs to ensure that its staff and electorates were safe to cast their ballot.

She explained that the Commission therefore decided to donate the remaining PPEs to the GES and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) since it would go a long way to support the fight against the pandemic in various health facilities, schools and offices across the country.

Mrs Mensah commended the GES for permitting some of its staff to augment their staff to carry out the elections.

Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, Director General of GES, who received the items thanked the EC for the gesture and pledged to forward them to those who would need it most towards the fight against the pandemic.

Other dignitaries who witnessed the presentation were the two deputy chairpersons, Dr Bossman and Mr Tetteh, the Director General for GHS, some staff of GES and GHS as well as EC.

The Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, met Management and Staff of GES in a durbar at the forecourt of the GES Headquarters to outline his vision for the sector.

In his address, the Minister thanked Management and Staff of GES for the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy in the last four years.

He extolled the excellent performance of the maiden candidates of the FSHS in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and attributed the glory to the hardworking staff and students of the GES.

Dr. Adutwum said “out of 2.1 million candidates that sat the exams from the five WASSCE countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia, 465 candidates obtained 8-As in total out of which 411 of them are students from Ghana, and curiously, products of the FSHS programme!”.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, challenged staff of the Service to replicate this wonderful performance in the Senior High school at the Basic school level as well. He said “my vision is to create an education system that is second to none in the sub-region”.

The Honourable Minister further emphasized that, his primary objective is to create a public basic education system that would outcompete the private basic school system, where parents would scramble for spaces in the public basic school system. “It’s doable, but this certainly would need a sense of urgency for change” he added.

He also acknowledged that all the plans he has for the pre-tertiary education sector cannot be achieved without the GES, and tasked everyone to put their shoulders to the wheel in order for all to be part of the success story if it’s to be told even in a decade.

Dr. Adutwum asked the Management of GES to create suggestion boxes and place them at vantage points for Officers and staff to drop their ideas on how best to improve the pre-tertiary education system.

In his concluding remark, the Minister asked all the staff to be worthy ambassadors of the pre-tertiary education system and embrace all the reforms that are currently ongoing.