INTRODUCTION
At the start of the year 2015, the Catholic Education Unit earmarked certain activities to be executed in line with the Diocesan Strategic Plan with focus on education. Most of these activities were successfully executed; others were partially done while some were not attempted.
These are:
- Capacity building for Local Managers was executed successfully as recorded below while training of school leaders (prefects) was suspended due to more urgent need to train Headteachers and their Assistants which was also successful.
- Child Protection Policy: the need for this policy was discussed with the Local Managers and Heads who inturn made their contributions to it. Finally, the draft document has been submitted to the Bishop and the Regional Director of Education for final comments. Meanwhile, the proposal written to fund the execution of this program through the Human Development Coordinator has received a favourable reply.
- School construction / renovation: St Theresa’s JHS is still in progress while St. Paul’s SHS Nasia is now in use pending approval for construction of the dormitory block on the new site. A new construction of SHS at Holy Angel Parish Garu commenced within the year and another new construction of a six (6) classroom block in St Anthony’s parish, Bawku through the initiative of their Local Manager – Rev Fr Joseph Tabaase is in progress. On the other hand, renovation of the Unit office in Navrongo with support from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul through Sr. Bernardine Pemii, DC is almost completed. The reconnection of electricity to the office is still pending.
- Collaborating and networking: These worked very well as all the personnel, both at our Regional CEU Office and in our Unit schools that we recommended for transfer in and out were honoured by the Directors concerned. Again, the Regional Office and some Directors invited our Unit for workshops and training sessions within the year. As part of networking with others, three of our newly posted staff to the Regional CEU office spent 5 working days at the Regional office of CEU in Ashanti Region for induction.
The Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ) workshop enriched the content and quality of our training sessions on the field with emphasis on teacher commitment.
Also, the National Conference of Managers of Catholic Education Unit (COMCEU) meeting held at Koforidua was another opportunity to learn good practices from other Regional Managers. This gave birth to the idea of planning a staff exchange program as part of induction for our newly recruited Regional CEU staff in the CEU Regional office at Ashanti Region.
- School partnership: this did not materialize due to its place on the priority list.
- Documentation: there was great improvement and innovation in the documentation of staff/pupils/students information by the Regional office Unit staff using the experiences gathered from their induction. Individual data and staff particulars collection is still in progress to standardize and update the Unit’s archive.
- Monitoring and supervision: A large number of schools and all the parishes were visited. The parish priests met during the visit welcomed, accommodated and fed us during the period of visitation. A total of 322 schools were visited as against last year’s 114 and all the 18 parishes and one rectory were covered though one parish (Bolgatanga) did not benefit from the capacity building for Local Managers and Headteachers due to some challenges at the parish level which eventually were addressed after the training sessions.
- Awards: Some headteachers have been proposed for best headteacher award and the event is scheduled for the end of this academic year.
Generally, it has been a very challenging as well as successful year especially as regards renewing the Unit’s office staff and improving the visibility of the Unit in ALL the parishes where we have our schools.
Download Full Report:2015 Report: Jan-Dec