Herald                                  Â
Thursday, 11 August 2011Â
By Felix Share
Education, Sport, Art and Culture Minister David Coltart has refuted reports that Government has banned holiday lessons for non-examination classes.
He, however, said the ministry would punish teachers who initiate holiday lessons for monetary benefits after deliberately failing to complete syllabuses during the normal school term.
In an interview yesterday, Minister Coltart said holiday lessons for examination and non-examination classes should continue countrywide as scheduled but “extorting” parents should end. Reports were that Government had banned holiday lessons for non-examination classes with only Grade Seven, Form Four and Form Six classes allowed to have extra lessons during the school holidays.
Said Minister Coltart: “There was never a ban or even a suspension on the lessons as reported earlier on. Government is only against a situation whereby teachers deliberately fail to complete their syllabuses by the end of the term and force parents to pay for holiday lessons. “It is clear some teachers are not doing justice during the term and they should not extort from parents simply because they want to cover up for their laziness. “All lessons should go ahead as planned but without putting parents into forced arrangements.” He said parents should send their children for holiday lessons willingly.
“We have genuine cases where teachers perform well during the term and would want to do even better during the holidays.
“I see no reason for banning such cases because it will help in maintaining our standards and better our education sector,” he said.
Minister Coltart said headmasters and their district education officers would ensure teachers complete their syllabuses on time and parents are not prejudiced their cash through holiday lessons.
“Monitoring would be tight and any teacher found on the wrong side of the law would face the consequences in terms of the Education Act because that will be unprofessional conduct.
“Headmasters should be in a position to determine whether teachers have completed the syllabus or not. This they will do with the help of inspectors who are DEOs,” he said.
To improve the monitoring of schools, Government recently distributed 59 new vehicles for education inspectors.