HOUSING SHS FRESHMEN (AUGUST 4, 2010)

WE are compelled by prevailing circumstances to revisit the issue of providing infrastructure facilities for senior high schools (SHS) to facilitate the successful phasing out of the four-year SHS duration.
We do so based on the fact that we appreciate the worth of education, especially where the youth of the country are concerned.
Since the issue of the provision of facilities in our SHSs came up, we have had cause to express concern over the ability of the State to provide those facilities within the time frame which they are to be provided and against the backdrop that government resources are not limitless.
It appears that our worst fears have been realised, which, in turn, will seem to confirm the fear both Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates and their parents harbour that admissions to SHS 1 in September will face challenges.
While opening the annual educational sector review meeting in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, announced that the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) had been requested to stand by with tents to provide temporary shelter for SHSs which would not be able to complete structures for usage by fresh students when the schools reopened next month.
He explained that the measure had become necessary because not all the blocks being constructed would be ready for the intake of first-year SHS students who were due to begin the SHS programme in September.
If we read meaning into what the minister said, we realise that the Ministry of Education is conceding the fact that it cannot provide all the needed facilities — that is, classrooms and dormitories — for all the SHSs in the country, for which reason it is asking the GAF to be on standby to provide the tents as a temporary measure.
This state of affairs may have arisen because of the late realisation of the enormous burden on the ministry to provide those facilities. That was why the DAILY GRAPHIC, since the beginning of the last academic year, had drummed home the need for resources to be made available for the educational sector to cater for SHSs which needed new classroom blocks and dormitories.
Only last week, we had reason to complain about the fact that the needed facilities were being provided in some selected schools, while the majority of SHSs were left out, even though ALL SHSs needed them.
We wish the annoucement by the Minister of Education would assuage the fears of BECE candidates and their parents, now that BECE results have been released.
In the face of all this, we ask the government to continue to explore all the available avenues to be able to meet the exigencies of the time so that we, as a nation, do not jeopardise the future of our teeming youth who have successfully gone through basic education.
If we fail to rein in the present situation, the consequences will be with us for a long while and a whole generation of our youth will be lost forever.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is still hopeful that we can turn the situation around and rescue our children, nephews, nieces, cousins, brothers, sisters and grandchildren from despair.