Six-year education system to replace the current system – Yaw Osei-Adutwum
An intention of overhauling the current secondary education system for a six years system has been revealed by the government.
“In 2023 when we open those schools, you are going to see how we are going to see six years [of] quality secondary education,” the Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum revealed during a press briefing.
The system is set to be implemented at 15 sites and is seen to be more cost-effective.
“We have 13,000 Junior High Schools. If these reforms go on as planned, we are going to reduce to about 2,500,” Dr. Adutwum said.
“In all medium-sized communities and towns, we are going to change the space by ensuring we do an amalgamation and bring together all the Junior High Schools, put them under the same management in the same building. When you bring 12 schools together and put them under one umbrella; you have one headmaster, you can get a school bus for them, you can get a pickup for the headmaster. You can have an office manager. You have a more efficient organization.”
Dr. Adutwum has long been a critic of Junior High School education, which he has described as “the weakest link in our education system.”
Though he commended relative equality at that level, he noted that “putting people at the same level does not mean you are creating an equitable system if you do not provide the opportunity for people who are disadvantaged to really improve.”
According to him, “by the time they get to high school, they are not prepared for high school work, and they all know that.”
The duration to attend primary schools in Ghana was initially 10 years until the 1987 Education Act was implemented. It moved to nine years, as the duration in Junior High School was also made three years.
Findings in the Dzobo Committee report of 1973, which stated that intermediate education in Ghana should consist of more vocational, science, agricultural, and technical courses to align with national development goals necessitated its implementation.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
