The country will pilot a six-year secondary education system from 2023 as part of the education reforms being pursued by the government, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said.
According to him, the decision forms part of efforts to transform the secondary education in Ghana with focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Dr Adutwum disclosed this during a sensitisation workshop for some selected journalists in Accra on Tuesday.
The workshop, organised by the Ministry of Education, was to provide opportunity for the Minister of Education to interact with the media.
Under the six-year system, he said, some junior and senior high schools would be merged and administered by one management.
“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,” he said.
Dr Adutwum further said “When you bring 12 schools together and put them under one umbrella, you have one headmaster. Then, you can get a school bus for them, a pick-up for the headmaster, an office manager and you have an efficient organisation.”
He stated that the number of high schools would be reduced from 13,000 to about 2,500 during the implementation of the system.
Dr Adutwum explained that the system would be piloted with 15 schools which had been awarded on contract and would be called lower secondary.
This, he said, was envisioned to be more efficient and cost-effective than the present.
“The facilities we are providing are just like any high school facilities and every one of these schools has a library, biology, chemistry and physics laboratories. Beautiful school buildings, and they are coming to a community near you very soon.
“In 2023 when we open those schools, you are going to see how we are going to provide six years of quality secondary education and not three years, plus some three years old middle school-led education that we will call high school,” the Education Minister said.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, expressed concern about the negative reportage which greeted the Free Senior High School programme.
“When you place your emotions in the story then you are wrong… But beyond the watchdog, the media is not so accurate, but we must add value to the story…….” When Free SHS came, we made mockery of it but now we all have accepted it and have realised it is good,” he said.
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafo urged the media to conduct in-depth analysis and investigations into issues to get better understanding before reporting on them.
“I know most of you are going to report that the Minister said so and so …but we need to ask questions. For instance, how they are going to get money to fund the reduction of 13,000 senior high schools (SHSs) to 2,500 and why they can’t be improved and made more effective,” he added.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR