Editorial

Make public understand new six-year secondary school system

The government has announced plans to reform the country’s secondary or high school education into a six-year continuous system whose piloting is set to begin in 2023 with 15 schools.

Among other things, the decision forms part of efforts to transform the secondary education in Ghana with focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Under the new system junior and senior high schools would be merged and administered by one management and provided with common facilities like a school bus for the students, a pickup for the headmaster, a library and, biology, chemistry and physics laboratories.

The first three years of the new system will be called lower secondary and that the number of high schools would be reduced from 13,000 to about 2,500 during the implementation of the system.

The government envisions the new system to be more efficient and cost-effective and of better quality than the present one.

The Ghanaian Times, as usual, is ready to propagate the new system but wishes to point out that the Ministry of Education, which is spearheading the reforms, should make deliberate efforts to provide all the necessary information to help the public to easily buy into it.

The paper is raising this issue because there are various questions to be answered, especially with regard to its full implementation.

Is the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) going to be abolished? If yes, is it going to use class assessment to move from the lower secondary to the upper level? What is going to be the pass mark or it is going to be done by wholesale promotion?

Is there opportunity for students to choose schools or the ministry will decide which students are entitled to getting into boarding school? If so, what are the plans to cater for the special needs of these children most of whom will be under 13 years of age on admission?

This paper knows that already, basic education in Ghana, that is, from primary one to six is completely free under the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) system but that is day school. Should some lower secondary students be in boarding school, would they enjoy free education?

This paper also thinks the members of the public would be happy to know how the 13,000 schools are going to be reduced to 2,500. Are some of the existing school buildings going to be out of use?

They would also like to know the fate of the private sector in the new system. This is important because of the complementary efforts of private players in formal education delivery in the country.

This point must not be glossed over because of the disaster that befell some private schools following the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) in 2017. Some private SHSs like PANKS SHS at Opembor, near Bawjiase, had to close down whereas others had to run under trying circumstances, which in both cases means loss of teaching jobs and reduction in incomes.

The Ghanaian Times would be grateful if the Ministry of Education would organise events like media engagement to answer the questions raised in this write-up and others like them as a means of ensuring and enhancing understanding of the new system.

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