Free SHS calendar in a mess, teachers stranded - Africa Education Watch

The existence of a definitive academic calendar is a basic pre-requisite for an efficient education system. Though students are halfway into the first semester, calendar for the second term remains uncertain, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare has said.

These erratic changes in the double-track academic calendar have made it difficult for headteachers, teachers, students, and parents to plan ahead and also cater for their responsibilities respectively.

It would be recalled that there has been inconsistency in the reopening dates of students enjoying Free SHS lately. It has also been reported that both first and second year gold track students will now report to school for the first semester of the 2019/2020 academic year on Friday, November 15, 2019.

Recounting the number of inconsistencies in the sector, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch stressed that “on the 14th of October, 2019, just a day before vacation for Form 2 Track Green students, the GES suddenly announced a one-month postponement of their vacation from October 15 to November 12, 2019. November 8, 2019 the GES again announced a change in the reporting date for Track Gold Form 1 student from November 12, 2019, to 16th and November 17th, 2019. This means that both Form 1 and Form 2 students on Track Gold will for the first and second time respectively, have to delay their reporting schedule.”

The group is, therefore, calling for a clearly defined roadmap that will lead to a conclusive time table for the double-track SHS academic calendar.

Meanwhile, they are giving Ghana Education Service a two-week ultimatum to publish the next academic calendar to help stakeholders prepare for it.

Read the full statement below: