A former Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, has said that efforts must be concentrated on improving the current educational system rather considering proposals to reintroduce the former ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system.<\/p>\n
According to her, the previous education system also had challenges for which reason it was changed.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”eAqJ88pM1zSlhEiKaVawGHxUiOf1ggND”]She called for caution on the part of government and stakeholders in education in considerations for another educational system.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong> on Tuesday, the former Education Minister said although the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system was of a high standard, it was selective.<\/p>\n “Yes, the system we have is not perfect, no system is perfect. The ‘O’ and ‘A’ level [system] was not perfect, so we can grow what we have and make it strong. If we are talking about bringing the old system back, we have the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system that was very selective and I think we can all return to the statistics. How many children were in primary school then? How many got the chance to write the common entrance? How about the so many of our own children who never had the change at the ‘O’ level? We should speak for them. …If we bring a system that widens the net, and brings many more people on board, it is useful for us,” she said.<\/p>\n She added that, a study of the trends in the current educational system, showed a number of challenges that needed to be addressed to improve the standard. She mentioned that the current system had challenges such as access, equity, and relevance which needs to be tackled.<\/p>\n “Yes, the standards have fallen, we’ve said that often, but why are we not committed to work on this so we know where the specific issues are and then target our interventions?” Naana Opoku Agyemang quizzed.<\/p>\n The Charismatic Bishops\u2019 Conference in a communiqu\u00e9 issued earlier this week, called on the government to\u00a0reintroduce the \u2018O\u2019 and \u2018A\u2019 level educational system which according to them, will restore the integrity of formal education in Ghana.<\/p>\n It said the country had been subjected to an inferior form of education through the JHS and SHS for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n The Charismatic Bishops\u2019 Conference, founded by Bishop Dag Heward Mills, and comprises seasoned Ghanaian clergy,\u00a0said, \u201cwe call the JHS and SHS an inferior form of education because international universities require our SHS graduates to do a foundational course for a whole year before admitting them to the university proper. Years ago, graduates from secondary schools in Ghana did not have to do such foundational courses because they already had a good foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe call the JHS and SHS an inferior form of education because we have reason to doubt the current ability of the WAEC to conduct credible examinations. It is common knowledge that the examinations are flawed with serious leakages, such that many students today do not know how to study unless they have seen leaked papers,\u201d it further said.<\/p>\n But some stakeholders including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), have described the proposal as unwarranted especially as it is not based on any research, arguing that the current system must be improved to achieve the desired results.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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