Education minister justifies December 4 reopening date for SHS freshers

The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has given a justification for the decision by the Ghana Education Service (GES), an agency under the ministry, to set December 4, 2023, as the date for first-year Senior High School (SHS) students, who were recently placed, to resume school.

There was public uproar over the decision by the ministry and the GES to order the first-year students to resume school days after they received their school placement.

Some stakeholders in the education sector, including teacher unions, called on the ministry to reverse the order, pointing out that parents needed more time to prepare before they sent their wards to school. However, the ministry was adamant and insisted that the students are to resume on January 4.

Addressing parliament on Monday, December 04, 2023, after he was summoned by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to explain the 'abrupt' resuming date, Dr Adutwum indicated that the date for the students to resume school cannot be reversed because the GES wants the school calendar to return to the one that was used before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Last year school opened in February for first-year students, this year we are opening in December which gives us the opportunity to then open in October or September and therefore go back to the pre-Covid calendar as we are all envisaging,” he said.

The minister also said that parents were well aware of the resumption date and therefore had prepared accordingly.

He added that compared to last year a lot of the students have received their placement (over 81%) which means that academic work can start for them.

He also refuted the assertion that teachers are exhausted because they have been working all year round because of the double-track system.

Watch a video of his remarks below:

We need to return to the pre-covid calendar - Education minister justifies reopening date for SHS 1 students; says enough measures were out in place to prepare students #MetroNews pic.twitter.com/yi5ffqbZwb

— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) December 5, 2023