Double track system is 'academic dumsor' - KNUST Lecturer

A lecturer at the Chemistry Department of the Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Richard Tia, has called the proposal by the Akufo-Addo government of a double track SHS system as ‘academic dumsor’, and fears, unless assurance of the contrary exists, may cause irreparable damage to our education, MyNewsGH.com can report.

In a rather lengthy facebook post sighted by MyNewsGH.com, the lecturer advised President Akufo-Addo that “a cardinal rule of survival is that when you find yourself in a pit, the first thing to do is to stop digging. Nothing I have heard since the policy was announced tells me that this is a well thought-out programme.”

He went on: “As old man I have seen too much tinkering with our educational system over the years by politicians who do not pay attention to the details. My first day in school in 1987 fell on the first day of the Junior Secondary School (JSS) system, and I remember very vividly that we were taught a song that went something like this:



“Children of the land, Gather courage. J S S has come, To save all. Only handle the tools with care And psychomotor skills shall flow. Children of the land, Gather courage. J S S has come, To save all.”

But even at that age, the song sounded funny to my ears because there were no tools to talk of handling them with care, and therefore no psychomotor skills could be expected to flow.

“Fast forward exactly two decades later, the Kufuor government changed everything from “Secondary” schools to “High” schools, almost as if by changing the name things were automatically going to get better.

Then a year later they changed the three-year SHS system to a four-year system, without any provisions for the needed infrastructure – classrooms, , dormitories, dining halls – due to the added year.



By the time those students got to the fourth year, another government was in power and the NPP then in opposition organized press conferences to blame the then-current government for not doing enough to provide infrastructure to accommodate the additional students.

Fast forward another decade and we are struggling with this beast called free SHS that is threatening to devour everything in sight.” he wrote.