SOLVING 4-YEAR SHS BLUES (JAN 28, 2010)

Quality education is the bedrock of the development of any country. A conducive learning environment, the availability of teaching materials and quality tuition ensure the attainment of quality education.
Our educational system is bedevilled with a number of challenges, such as the lack of infrastructure, teaching aid and teachers.
The need for quality education has, therefore, always informed the debate over whether to continue with the four-year senior high school (SHS) or reduce it to a three-years system.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) pledged in its manifesto to reduce the duration of SHS to three years because it argued that with improved infrastructure and tuition, students could acquire the requisite knowledge and skills that would enable them to perform well in their examinations.
When it assumed the reins of power, it did not hesitate to reduce the duration to three years to take effect from the next academic year.
It is, however, worrying that headmasters and headmistresses are still racing against time to meet the accommodation and classroom needs of the first batch of the four-year SHS students.
Some of the projects initiated to accommodate the students are at the foundation level, while others in many of the schools that face infrastructural and logistic challenges have been abandoned.
Another challenge is that projects supported by the GETFund have been abandoned.
As an attempt to address the infrastructural challenge, some of the schools have converted their laboratories and dormitories into classrooms to accommodate the expected increases in student population. However, some of the schools cannot expand further due to lack of space.
The Daily Graphic is disturbed about that development because as things stand, it is the students who will suffer the brunt of this infrastructural challenge, as they will be crammed into classrooms meant for fewer students. This will not provide the conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning, which will consequently affect the academic performance of the students.
Since the new educational reform seeks to improve teaching and learning, it is crucial for the government to impress upon the GETFund to work out the mechanisms to pay contractors to resume work on the projects.
The Daily Graphic appeals to interested corporate bodies and individuals to support the schools in cash and in kind to meet their infrastructural and logistic challenges.
We believe all is not lost yet, as the challenges offer opportunities for the school heads to initiate the processes to address the constraints. Thus, the heads of the schools should start consultations and preparations towards the success of the new educational reform.
It is about time the school heads liaised with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to get all the textbooks and other logistics in order to avoid any hitches in the implementation of the programme.
The Daily Graphic urges the government to continue to give priority attention to education at all times, especially when it has to do with pre-tertiary education. The reason is that students need the foundation at the second-cycle level to prepare for professional and academic training at the tertiary level. It helps to prepare the youth for the world of work on the competitive job market.
The Daily Graphic calls on every Ghanaian to lend his or her support to any effort by the government to help the first batch of four-year SHS students to complete their education so that no obstacles are placed in the way of the three-year SHS programme.