No decision on proposed SHS programme-GNAT

Accra, Jan. 27, GNA - The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Tuesday said it had not taken any position on the proposed three-year Senior High School programme. Ms Afua Kotoku, Assistant Public Relations Officer, GNAT told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that the Association would however support any system that would best serve the interest of teachers and promote quality education.
She said GNAT would respond at the appropriate time, saying: "We are waiting until we have a substantive Minister of Education before coming out to give any position." Ms Kotoku was reacting to a statement made by the nominee for Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, that he would implement the National Democratic Congress' manifesto which would revert the current system to a three-year programme. The nominee, who is a former Acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service said the former government began the four-year programme when it had not put in place the syllabus, infrastructure and textbooks.
But Mr. John Kwasi Nyoagbe, Deputy General Secretary, Education and Professional Development of GNAT who gave his personal view, told GNA that the four-year SHS education would not be necessary, if government would concentrate on providing solid basic education. He said what the country needed now was to introduce policies and programmes that would improve teaching and learning in basic school to provide a solid foundation for the educational system. "Without very quality education in basic schools and efforts to provide a facelift to all deprived schools, prolonged SHS education would not be necessary", he added.
Mr Nyoagbe identified the absence of adequate infrastructure to meet the demands of the programme as a major challenge. He said if the trend should continue, heads of SHS would be compelled to cut down on in-take in order to make room for the fourth year classes due to the inadequate infrastructure. Reducing in-take, he said, would create more problems for the country, since only 40 per cent of Junior secondary school leavers enrol in SHS each year.
Mr Nyoagbe noted the four-year programme also put more burden on parents and advised that government adopt other proactive measures that would best ensure quality education. There could only be few problems, he said, if the four-year programme was changed to three, adding that only schools that have delayed in introducing electives for the second year class would have some difficulties. The four-year programme was introduced in the Education Reform Programme initiated by the former government. Under this programme, first year SHS students would study only core subjects, namely: English Language, Core Mathematics, Integrated Science and Social Studies including French and ICT and would begin their electives in the second year. 27 Jan. 09