President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has expressed shock at what looks like an attempt by government to alter for the third time the duration of Senior High School education in Ghana.
In what many have described as a “joke with the country’s educational system, Senior High School duration has been tossed around between Ghana’s two major political parties, the NDC and the NPP.
The NPP under President Kufuor changed the duration of SHS from the usual three years to four years, with the claim that its extensive research had proven that will churn out better quality.
[contextly_sidebar id=”aRspZ2w1egKI7AB2yNuwwmrBztlngwGo”]The NDC, which was then in opposition disagreed vehemently with the change and vowed to revert to four years when it won power.
True to their campaign promise, they moved it to three years claiming their research also proved that quality had nothing to do with an extended duration, but rather investment in infrastructure and human resource.
But barely six years after the reversion to three years by the NDC administration, the same administration has tasked the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), to conduct a three-year analysis of the results of senior high schools throughout the country.
The study according to a Daily Graphic report of Saturday October 24, is to enable the Ministry of Education to take a decision on whether or not the current three-year duration should be reverted to four years or maintained.
The Member of Parliament for Trobu in the Greater Accra Region, Mr. Moses Anim, made this known when the Committee on Government Assurance in Parliament visited the Students’ Parliament of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) at Cape Coast last Thursday.
Mr. Anim contended that due diligence was not done before the four years was reverted to its present three years, saying the actual contact hours of students in SHS, as a result, was two years one month, but not three years.
“It is all about contact hours. When we take examination weeks, delays for BECE results, holidays and other extra-curricular calendar out, the real contact hours is two years, one month,” he said.
He added that the present policy had put what he described as slow learners at a disadvantage.
Mr. Anim advocated that the universities should rather do three years and not the SHS.
Irrational decisions
The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, who was commenting on the recent internal wrangling within the rank and file of the opposition New Patriotic Party on Citi FM’s news analysis programme ‘The Big Issue, decried the trend where politicians for the purpose of elections take irrational decisions that only affect the lives of the citizenry.
Juxtaposing the developments in the NPP and the poor decisions of governments, he wondered why the government is now seeking to analyze the three-year SHS duration.
According to him, most of the reckless decisions and the disorganized manner in which internal political party issues are handled, are repeated in real governance hence the challenges the country faces in its quest to achieve real development.
“Much as I agree that there must be some element of madness in every party, it appears that it is becoming the norm and these are the things that translate into decision making. I was just reading behind the Daily Graphic that government has tasked CHASS to look into the whole matter of the three-year secondary school education and the point was that, due diligence was not done before the four years was reverted to the current three years”.
“In fact, by the stroke of an election, you have people taking decisions that will affect the lives of people. We were talking about vision 2020 and then just after election we said we are now back to vision 2015″he lamented.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana