Parliament on Friday called on the Ghana Education Service to reconsider the reporting date for first year senior high school students to first week in 2024.
The House said doing so would give educators, parents and the students time to adequately prepare for the term.
“The House calls on and urges the minister of education to consider the directive by the Ghana Education Service to students and authorities including teaching and non-teaching staff to resume academic work on Monday December 4, 2023.
“The House proposes for the consideration of the ministry of education the first week of January 2024 for the resumption of academic work in these schools,” the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, suggested.
Consequently, the House has summoned the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, to appear in Parliament yesterday to brief the House over the reporting date.
He was summoned by the Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, on Thursday after the Ranking Member on the Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, raised concern over the proposed reporting day for the fresh entrants into SHS.
The students are expected to report to their various schools today before vacating later this month for the Christmas break.
However, in the view of the Speaker, the postponement would facilitate better readiness among teachers, parents and the students for the term.
Ranking member on the Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, who raised the issue on the floor, posited that the date would put unbearable pressure on stakeholders in the secondary education sector.
The Akatsi North MP said with the students expected to vacate in three weeks’ time, it would be more appropriate for them to report in January in order to allow their parents adequately prepare.
His request is in agreement with the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ who calls on the government to postpone the reopening date to January.
Mr Nortsu-Katoe argued that parents would have it difficult to prepare their wards over the weekend for school today.
He could fathom how parents were expected to ready their children for school just five days after the reopening date was announced.
Commenting on the matter, North Tongu MP and a former deputy minister of education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said he has received calls from teachers who have complained of fatigue and needed some break.
He said the teachers needed a refreshed mind to impact the students fully and for this reason, the Ghana Education Service must reconsider the date
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI