A Child-Centered organisation, Child Rights International (CRI), is advocating for increase in the 30 per cent quota system to 40 per cent reserved for students of local communities in Senior High School (SHS) admissions under the new computerised system.
An increase to 40 per cent quota, the organisation said, would be beneficial and a bold step to fully scale up access to quality education to majority of Ghanaian children of school age.
However, the organisation, said if government “aims to implement and have a comprehensive policy that would address the needs of rural children then the quota system should be reviewed and if possible pegged at 40 per cent to give more children the opportunity to have access to secondary school.
The Executive Director of CRI, Mr Bright Appiah, in a statement signed and copied the Ghanaian Times, said increasing the quota would not only help majority of Ghanaian children from the rural communities to have access to secondary education but also change their lifestyle.
“As a country, we have seen the benefits of giving more opportunities to children to access quality education. If more initiatives are implemented and the quota system expanded, Ghana could be on its way to reducing the literacy rate among its citizens in the next few years,” the statement said.
CRI also asked that the increase in the quota for rural communities to 40 per cent should be protected in such a way that no change in government would alter it.
“A clear directive policy must be put in place since that would make it impossible for a reversal should there be a change in government,”
CRI said the grade ‘A’ schools must also endeavour to ensure children from the rural communities receive proper training that would empower them like their counterparts.
Since the implementation of the 30 per cent quota for the rural communities, CRI explained that the move continues to yield greater results where children from those communities have been given access to Grade A and B schools.
“This policy has favoured the rural communities looking at the circumstances they find themselves and how they are able to pass their exams,” the statement said.
The organisation said a research it conducted revealed that when “children come from the rural communities and are able to access secondary schools which gives them a level playing ground, they perform far better than their counterparts from well-known schools.”
According to CRI’s statement, giving the 30 per cent quota to children from rural communities “has enhanced and reduced the losses the state is making when it comes to investment in the Education sector”.
Regarding some of the challenges being faced in the computerised system, CRI urged the MoE, GES and relevant stakeholders to work as a collaborative team to remove any barriers that would affect the policy.
The organisation expressed the hope that those challenges could be addressed and completely removed to ensure quality and broad access to education.
