The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), has justified its decision to cancel a lecture scheduled to be delivered on the duration of Senior High School (SHS) education in the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”BUIEkORC90PE7lVmA6mc9iFYMHjKVG4K”]The lecture, which was to be delivered by President of the Central University College, Prof Kwesi Yankah, was called off because the council feared it could generate some unwanted controversy.
Speaking to Citi News, the [Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Agnes Teye Cudjoe, explained that the Speaker of today’s lecture and the topic, were changed in the best interest of the council.
“The lecture will come on as scheduled this afternoon at 3pm. It is the topic and the Speaker which have changed but other than that, the lecture will come on as planned…This change has come about because of certain developments. I think we realized later on that the initial topic, that is three-year, four year thing could generate some controversy which I did not want to be associated with,” she explained.
She said the topic was chosen by the initial speaker but was later found to be inappropriate. She said the new topic, ‘Performance in Mathematics and science; breaking the chains’ will be delivered by Professor John Nathan Fletcher.
“We want to focus on our mandate that is the conduct of examinations and we also know that performance in Science have also been an issue so since Prof. Fletcher has already been researching and he has been working on it he was due to speak on it…”
Why topic is ‘political’
Ghana’s Senior High School (SHS) duration, has been altered several times between the three and four years duration by the administrations of the two main political parties, the NDC and the NPP.
Both parties have at various times advanced arguments why their preferred duration is appropriate and efficient.
But critics have accused politicians of toying with education merely because they find it politically expedient.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana