Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare says Ghana’s education system is being treated as a joke with the frequent and somewhat unplanned changes to the academic calendar of Senior High Schools.
On his accord such an interruptive system is not in line with the sector minister’s claim that Ghana’s educational system is one of the best globally.
“Such frequent interruptions in the academic calendar subjects our educational system to ridicule. Just after the Education Minister said our system was one of the best in the world, a new timetable for students was introduced”, he disclosed.
Speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM, Kofi Asare who is worried about this disruptive flow shared that the timetable for Senior High Schools has been changed for a record four (4) times within a single academic year.
“I don’t know if the global educational standard requires schools to change their timetable every month or what. I don’t understand this”, he mentioned.
Apart from the frequent changes interrupting the country’s educational system, it also raises issues of accountability. “Now the authorities just come and tell us that the timetable has been changed without any explanation which is unfair to parents”.
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On his authority, with the old system where timelines for school reopening and vacations were fixed, parents and guardians had the time to properly plan their activities and leave days where necessary. “If a student comes to school for three weeks and you tell them to go for vacation when parents are not expecting them at the said time, then it means you’re not being accountable to parents. And you’re also interfering in the schedules of parents”.
Citing the recent situation where the reopening date for Form 3 students was changed unannounced, Kofi Asare mentioned, “Some students left Accra to school in Zebila and were asked to return home. In such a case, who will pay for their transport? Now the extra burden of cost falls on parents”.
Chiding government, the African Education Watch Executive Director emphatically stated, “We cannot use the double track system as an excuse for mediocrity”.
In 2018, the government of Ghana introduced the double-track system in Senior High Schools to ensure the success of the free SHS policy. The tracking system has however brought about some challenges in the academic calendars of SHSs which seem to make parents and the ordinary Ghanaian unhappy.