Fix basic education – Likimani

Ghana needs to address the quality of education at the basic school level in order to improve the overall intellect of pupils before they graduate to be admitted to senior high school, Kina Likimani, Founder and Executive Director of NGO AfterSchool Ghana has suggested.

Even though she lauded government’s announcement to roll out a Free SHS policy in September this year, she was of the view that basic education was very important and resources needed to be directed at solving the challenges there.

For her, if there were to be any interventions in the education sector, an overhaul of elementary education would be necessary.

“We need to also look at fixing various issues at the basic level. We need to look at the quality of the children leaving the basic schools to SHS and this is our problem, and if we are not addressing it [it will create a bigger challenges],” she argued during a discussion with Moro Awudu on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show.

She maintained during the interview on Monday, February 13 that: “Our curriculum now at the basic level requires a lot of resources. We have way too many subjects, we do not have enough teachers, we have issues with teacher training, we have issues to do with oversight and supervision, and we have issues to do with resources in terms of libraries. We are teaching ICT as a theoretical course, the teaching of English in Ghanaian schools is inadequate.”

She was of the view that Ghana “can have FCUBE and improve quality so we need to discuss and see how we can improve the quality at that level”.

On the Free SHS policy, Ms Likimani endorsed the programme and added that analysts should look beyond A-class schools as many parents, especially in rural areas, struggle to pay fees of their children in SHS.