WHEN John E. A. Mills took over national administration in January 2009, one of the first policy statements his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC,) put out was that they were going to revert the duration of the Senior High School (SHS) from four to three years. They argued that four years was needlessly too long, since the teachers and students could complete their necessary syllabuses in three years.
THEN the New Patriotic Party (NPP,) from which party Kufuor became President and later changed the three-year school duration to four, rose in complaint. They argued that they took that decision on the basis of research conducted by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Services (GES,) who, together, proffered evidence to show that four years would give the students ample time to really prepare.
WE on Today, like the people of Ghana, noted the deep partisan positions of the two sides and the way it took centre stage pushing off the table the issue of the merits and demerits of the three-year and four-year durations. A lot has been said in the last few years about the general effects of the partisan politicisation of state issues on our national psyche and preparedness to develop and build a progressive life for ourselves. Hence that is not our issue of concern here.
WHEN the Mills administration reduced the SHS duration by one year, they argued that there were not even enough classrooms for the students. At that time the Mills administration had, for almost two years, ceased work on additional classrooms started by the Kufuor administration.
IN the end, both the NPP and NDC could not convince the people of Ghana on the greater viability or otherwise of the three-year or four-year duration. And totally lost in the back and forth was its place in national agenda. But the Mills administration brought back the three years, which was originally made policy by education reform carried out by the Rawlings administration in the 1980s.
THREE, four years on, it is clear no one later sat down to visualise the future effects of the change in policy. And so this year, we have the last set of students doing four years writing the examinations alongside. In practical terms, there is twice as large the number of students writing the examinations and there are not enough rooms for examination halls.
WHEN the issue came up few weeks before the examinations would begin, an Internet radio station, Hedzoleonlineradio, called an official of the GES on air. The official explained that they have anticipated it and so have done everything to ensure a smooth process.
BUT Alas! On the eve of the start of the SHS examinations, officials of the same GES said the students will be writing the papers in shift, thus Set A would be quarantined while Set B writes say Mathematics, and Set A would write the same paper after Set B. That is shameful and highly indicative of the incompetence of the people we have entrusted with responsibility to solve our problems.
WE on Today could easily see a simple solution that would have eliminated the quarantine, and we are surprised it did not occur to the GES or even the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC.) Or they deliberately thought up the shift system for the same people to reap all the per diems and allowances accruing from invigilation; but at the expense of the students?
IT is thus our position that the GES, because of their incompetence, has not been fair to our sisters and brothers, children and grand-children by putting them in quarantine, denying them free movement, before an examination. There is even the possibility that an invigilator in the examination hall could whisper something in a paper to someone and it could land among those quarantined giving that group undue advantage. It is easy to say that will not happen, but human ingenuity knows no such rule.
THE state puts people in responsible positions to solve problems, not to temporarily take away the freedoms of citizens in bungled problem-solving stunts that question their qualifications and background.
THE MoE, GES and WAEC must sit up!
