President John Dramani Mahama, has reiterated that education reform is a shared responsibility.

“It is a collective journey that requires all voices, all perspectives and all hands-on deck,” President Mahama stated on Tuesday when he formally opened the National Education Consultative Forum in Ho for the Volta and Oti Regions.

The three-day meeting on the theme “Transforming Education for a Sustainable Future,” brought together key stakeholders to address pressing challenges in Ghana’s education sector, including infrastructure, quality education, governance, financing, and research.

President Mahama said the education consultative process, he believed would bring out the best solutions born out of dialogue, partnership, and mutual understanding to deal with current and future challenges.

“Our goal today is to engage in an honest and productive discussion about the current state of education in Ghana, to diagnose the challenges and craft a bold and actionable roadmap for reform,” he said.

He said the current challenges facing the nation’s educational system require strategic priorities, fresh solutions derived from objective and non-partisan interrogation of issues and a renewed sense of urgency.

“The moment to act together is here and now. And we must use this forum to answer critical questions such as how do we ensure that every child in Ghana receives quality education regardless of where they are born or live?” the President said.

“How do we equip our schools and teachers with the necessary tools and resources to succeed in providing a quality education? How do we close the gaps in foundational learning and prepare our students for further studies, the world of work and the opportunities of the future?”

President Mahama said these, and many more questions were the ones that they expect participants to focus on and provide Ghanaians answers and a roadmap.

He said Ghanaians want an education system that prepares them adequately and nurtures them as Ghanaians with uncompromising values and character qualities of honesty, creativity, and responsible citizenship and with the 21st century skills of problem-solving and critical thinking.

He said the Government would increase the allocation of resources to critical areas, including foundational learning, with a focus on the four literacies; language, mathematics, science, and culture.

He said teacher education and capacity development would also receive attention, including infrastructure development and education technology.

The President said the Government would deepen partnership with parents, traditional authority, and local communities.