Opinions of Wednesday, 15 March 2017
Columnist: Desmond Allotey-Pappoe
Calls for re-introduction of "O" and "A" levels educational system legitimate but not curative
File photo
By: Desmond Allotey-Pappoe
Castle,the 20th century philosopher accented that "education is what happens to us from the day we emerge from the womb, to the day we enter the tomb".
The above reinforced the motion of 'education' being a process, and as a process it changes with respect to society's aspiration, goals/target.
Since formal education was introduced in 1529 through the castle school system, there have been a plethora of Educational reforms, Educational ordinances, Accelerated Development Plans, Educational Acts, and Educational Review Committee all boiled with the common interest of ensuring a quality and transparent educational system, which would meet the immediate needs of society.
The current education system (based on the 1974 Dzobo committee report) saw the cessation of the 1951 ADP, and by extension the 1961 ADP, which rooted the foundation for the GCE Ordinary level and GCE Advance level.
It is an open secret that, the 'O' level and 'A' level system was undoubtedly riddled with numerous challenges not limited to Inadequate infrastructures, Less emphasis on Mathematics and Science, Teacher deficit, and the fact that the curriculum was purely academic.
There is no perfect educational system in the the world but it the proactive management of the educational challenges that makes the system effective and efficient
The current education system is still burdened with challenges highlighted some years ago.
Issues of access and participation of pupils, quality of teaching and learning, educational infrastructures, management and supervision of staff, recruitment and selection of staffs, and teacher-deficit in rural communities need a strong will of Government and other stakeholders to be addressed and until the above are clearly segregated and accordingly addressed, reverting to ' O' and 'A' level system would be waste.
Desmond Allotey-Pappoe
M. Ed (Edu Adm & Mgt)
Teacher, Edu-blogger, Edu-researcher.
