The National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NASIA) has dismissed the allegations against its Executive Director, Dr. Haggar Hilda Ampadu, as entirely unfounded.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has called for Dr. Ampadu’s removal, contending that NASIA has failed to effectively collaborate with teacher unions and has neglected trained teachers from the Ghana Education Service (GES) for school inspections.
NAGRAT’s President, Angel Carbonu, recommended replacing Dr. Ampadu with a more competent individual.
In response, NASIA issued a statement on Wednesday, July 24, denouncing the claims as false. The authority also addressed the accusations of inadequate cooperation with teacher unions, clarifying that it was…
“Regulated by the Education Regulatory Bodies Act, 2020 (Act 2023), which clearly stipulates the functions of the Authority in Section 89. These functions focus primarily on school inspections, ensuring quality education, compliance with educational standards, and regulating pre-tertiary educational facilities.”
“More importantly, the NaSIA Governing Board, per Section 90 (1) (g) should have “one representative of the teacher associations nominated by the teacher associations on a rotational basis”. Currently, the Board has a representative from the teacher unions who does not fail to bring to our attention concerns which need to be addressed. Hence, we value the work of teacher unions as collaborators in our line of work.”
In response to the allegation of sidelining teachers, NaSIA emphasised that it is against its inspection policy to involve active duty teachers in inspections, as it would be counterproductive.
During inspections, NaSIA stated it observed teaching and learning in the classroom during school hours.
“Hence, a need to have active GES teachers in the classroom doing their duty as teachers while we do our duty as Inspectors. To this end and acknowledging the importance of teachers in our inspection processes, we only engage trained former GES teachers and retired GES teachers as contract Inspectors on an as-needed basis,” it added.
Regarding its leadership, the authority affirmed that it has seen growth and improvement under Dr. Ampadu’s leadership, and it wishes to safeguard it as much as possible.
“The National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA) would like to have on record that under the leadership of Dr. Haggar Hilda Ampadu since June 2019, the then National Inspectorate Board (NIB), now NaSIA has undeniably and significantly grown and improved.”
“For instance, we have moved from inspecting an average of fifty (50) schools per year in 2019 to over 10,000 schools per year currently, private schools included, producing annual aggregate and individual inspection reports which aid schools to improve on learning outcomes. We respect and value her leadership, and so would like to protect it as much as possible,” it stated.
