ASSURANCE REFRESHING (MAY 12, 2010)

AS efforts continue to be made to improve education in the country, the provision of infrastructure for schools remains a cardinal issue that must be effectively addressed.
In many deprived communities, the needed infrastructure to provide a conducive environment for academic work is lacking and students in some instances have no option but sit under trees for their studies.
Following the increase in the duration of senior high school (SHS) education by the previous government, there has been the need to provide adequate infrastructure to ensure that there is no setback in the enrolment of new students, given the already precarious situation some schools face.
Some parents and heads of SHSs in the country have expressed the concern that given the fact that SHS Three students have to spend another year in school, the enrolment of new SHS One students in September 2010 will suffer.
The government, in March this year, gave the assurance that it was committed to building a minimum of six-unit classroom structures for schools so that enrolment of new students would not be delayed as a result of the four-year SHS.
In addition, the government indicated that more than 100 dormitories would also be built to cater for at least 200 students in all SHSs.
The news that the government is working assiduously to make good its commitment is, indeed, refreshing. In fact, in some schools, such as Accra Girls’ SHS, work is reported to have almost been completed.
Education is key to the development of a sound human resource base and by this commitment the government has exhibited a deep-seated resolve to ensure that JHS graduates do not have to loiter as they wait for enrolment into SHS.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that this will contribute towards building a good academic environment to promote the complete development of students. With Ghana facing developmental challenges, the people cannot afford any delays in the grooming of new leaders to take up the mantle of leadership.
While we commend the government for its efforts at providing the needed infrastructure for schools, it is our hope that the contractors charged to build the classrooms and dormitories will deliver quality work in good time to ensure that both present and future students continue to derive maximum benefits from those facilities.
It is worthy of note that despite the challenges that the JHS/SHS system has faced since its inception, it has continued to produce very good graduates, many of whom are already excelling in their fields of endeavour.
The system continues to undergo some reforms to fine-tune it and ensure that students who go through it get the best of tuition to enable them to contribute more meaningfully to the development of their communities and the nation.
It is very important for students and parents to recognise the length to which the government is going to ensure that students do not spend some more time in the house waiting for admission to SHS so that they work to justify the investment the government is making.
In an era when education is becoming more and more competitive, it is our hope that students, in particular, will take up the challenge and take their studies seriously, since they have a responsibility to themselves and their nation to become worthy ambassadors of the new educational system and also agents of development.