President of Policy Think-Tank Imani Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, has described as stupid, the directive asking heads of some Senior High Schools (SHS) to admit more students than their stated capacity in the ongoing computer school selection and placement brouhaha.
There has been a stand-off between the Ghana Education Service (GES), school heads and parents over the lack of space to accommodate students posted to some top schools.
According to some parents, the schools have been unable to admit their wards because some influential persons in society are using what is commonly known as protocol list to get their wards and relatives admitted at all cost.
[contextly_sidebar id=”1iaW0mC3G9FLSzd0LzkpzYNSYCjR6LSi”]In the midst of the brouhaha, the GES has warned it will punish any school head that refuses to admit any student with the excuse of no space. Some schools have allegedly been told to take more than the school’s stated capacity.
Commenting on the development on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, Mr. Cudjoe, who said he does not believe in the computer selection system, described as “stupid” the directive to any school to admit more than it can take.
“The directive to the school heads to take the number that you get and add 20, is the most stupid directive ever. You don’t have to toy with people’s lives like that; I would have thought that the school heads would have collectively decided to tell whoever gave the directive to go to hell. It doesn’t make sense. If we live the politicians to continue dictate the pace of our education, we will get this kind of results.”
He also blamed politicians for the problems associated with the selection system.
“It appears to me that we know the problem and the agitators of the problems are the politicians. I have never believed in the computerized placement system in the first place. Of course, students should be at liberty to decide which school they want to go to, given that we have set up schools that are in themselves competition enough for them to choose the quality they want.
“I understand why we need the computer placement system; essentially to suggest that humans have failed and that people will be corrupt. But the fact of the matter is that, the reason why this computer system doesn’t exist in countries that are highly effective; is essentially because they’ve run systems where high schools are themselves competition enough. There must be some level of development in each secondary school to be able to attract students”.
He further argued” It shouldn’t be the case that there should be over concentration on some so-called 52 elite schools and because of that we need a mechanism to ensure that everyone is catered for; that is spreading misery all across. This is where sometimes I feel the heads of the institutions must put their feet on the ground. The whole idea about infrastructure within schools must be looked at critically to take up numbers. It doesn’t also mean that schools that are supposedly not well-endowed will never be endowed.”
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Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana