Free SHS: Lecturers complaining about quality of students entering our varsities – MP

Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has some students who passed the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) with good grades, but are struggling with their studies at the tertiary level.

The situation he said was so terrible that some of the lecturers are proposing an entrance exam module for students enrolling under the Free Senior High School policy.

The Deputy Ranking of Parliament’s Education Committee said the performance of the students has been abysmal.

“You can call a few of my colleagues who are still at the universities, lecturers, and ask them about the quality of students who are coming through these days. They will tell you that the quality is unsatisfactory.

“There are agitations from colleagues who’re still in academia proposing the need to institute an entrance examination because we have students who write WASSCE and get very good grades but when they get to the universities and other tertiary institutions, they are struggling to cope with tertiary level educational activity,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.

The lawmaker further noted that the recent assessment by the IMF has declared that although the policy increased enrolment, the quality was poor and the policy poorly targeted.

For him, this proves that the country is not getting value for money.

“The Free Senior High School has led to an increase in enrollment but with poor learning outcomes, I think that is very significant, it is largely because of that component of poor learning outcomes that justifies the call by John Mahama, the likes of Prof Ayettey, Prof Addae-Mensah, Kofi Asare of Education Watch and Dr Partey of Institute of Educational studies. Are we getting value for money and the answer is no,” he added.