Inmates of the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, desirous to enhance their education while serving their terms can soon walk home with a diploma or degree.
This follows arrangement between the Prison authorities and the Distance Education Units of the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coat to run programmes in the Humanities for the prisoners next year.
Rev. James Tetteh, Education Centre Programme Coordinator of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, told the Times newspaper that the idea was mooted by intellectuals among the inmates who showed inclination to impart knowledge to their colleagues with inadequate formal education.
He said the prisons authorities embraced the idea by adopting holistic approach of starting from a non-formal education through to Junior and Senior High School to special courses for Diploma in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Theological Studies.
Supt. Tetteh said �all the teachers at various levels are inmates who are well versed in their subject areas, however in order to keep them up to date with the syllabus and teaching techniques, workshops are organized for them from time to time�.
He said with the Nsawam Prison being perceived as a �University of Crime Tutelage� the authorities wanted to change that image and make it a real centre of reformation. �Since education prepares one for life, the series of educational programmes being carried out would culminate in providing inmates with improved quality life that would make them fit into society,� he said.
He said the problem of remuneration for the volunteer teachers was solved by the Presidential Special Initiative on Education with the introduction of Technical and Vocational Federation Training (TVET) to teach Block-laying and concreting in the prison.
Supt. Tetteh said each of the volunteers was put on monthly allowance of GH�600 which was lodged in an account where they could request for part-payment for their personal upkeep according to prison standard, and the rest paid after being discharged.
He, however, stated that for the past two months the payment had not been regular and appealed to the authorities to effect prompt payment to boost the morale of the teachers.
The unpaid allowances could also affect the running of the programme since it is through that we buy school materials and also register the students for any external examination�, he said.
Supt. Tetteh explained that since the students did not pay any school fees, the prison authorities decided to set up a small fund from the money the PSI had been paying to cater for their school needs outside the budget of the prison.
He said, �this is because almost all the teachers have displayed high professional conduct which has made the students highly competitive outside when discharged. For example, he said one of the inmates who had performed poorly in the WASSCE before being convicted of a crime, was taught in the prison to re-sit the exams after being discharged, and �he is now in his second year at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, studying medicine�.
Supt. Tetteh said for inmates willing to take advantage of the courses, arrangements were made in such a way that courses they offered to take coincided with their year of discharge, especially if they were serving a short-term.
He said with the teachers, others were encouraged to understudy them for replacement before they were discharged. Supt. Tetteh said with the passage of one group of students from one class to another by way of promotion, additional classrooms were needed.
�We are undertaking make shift arrangements to accommodate the existing classes at the moment but strictly speaking, we need three additional classrooms to have a full complement of the entire programme�, he said. He asked benevolent institutions and organizations help sustain the programme to be part of the prison system.
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