Adamu N.S Dasana, Upper West Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) and Proprietor of Bomandi Preparatory School in Wa, has said government must give priority to promoting private school sector investment potentials to investors, both local and foreign.
He said the government is not promoting enough investment potential within the private education sector.
He said investment potentials within the private schools' operational sector are not showcased by the government during most of her investment promotion engagements.
Mr Dasana made the comments on Monday during the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre’s sensitization tour of the Upper West Region in Wa.
Mr Dasana said successive governments have neglected the sector in terms of promoting investment opportunities to strengthen education delivery and the business aspect of the sector.
The former Wa West District Chief Executive intimated that the private education sector is also a business investment just like any other business and should be promoted for investment as the sector is gaining much preference over the public education sector.
“You don’t usually find education sector actors being part of presidential convoys for international investment fora as you would find actors from the mining, agricultural, and other sectors”, he alluded.
Mr Dasana said education has become a strong pillar of the development of economies around the globe as it trains an educated labour force to drive economic growth.
He added that investors look to engage entrepreneurs who are educated, trainable and can easily be communicated with; saying education was the key to obtaining such a trainable labour force.
He, therefore, intimated that if the country’s literate population is low, even with all other sectors attractive, investor confidence would still be low.
The GNAPS Secretary called for high level, broad-based stakeholder consultations in formulating education policies in the country.
He said, without such consultations, education sector policies would never address the challenges of Ghana’s educational system.