School Reopening: Unstable academic calendar for SHS risky – IES

Executive Director for the Institute for Educational Studies (IES), Peter Enti has expressed his concern over the recent unpredictable academic calendar for Senior High Schools (SHS).

This has become frequent in the last 3 years under the free Senior High School policy.

He believes if these irregularities are not resolved on time, the education of most SHS students will be negatively affected.

“The academic calendar of SHS students in the past 3 years have been very erratic. Their timetables and academic year have always been shifted and changed and parents, teachers and students who formerly could plan their lives cannot do so anymore. This is not helping anybody”, he said.

His comment comes on the back of the postponement of the reopening for Senior High School (SHS) Form 3 students to May 5.

Speaking in an interview with Raymond Nyamador on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM, Peter admitted, “We are very concerned about this development and feel this is not something that should’ve happened. Whatever challenge they are citing for postponing school reopening is not something that just dropped from the sky. It is something we have all known all this while and we are disappointed. We simply hope it doesn’t repeat itself moving forward”.

According to him, the issues of infrastructural challenges raised by the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) has been a long standing issue. “If they knew this before planning the academic calendar, then why wasn’t that solved long ago?” he asked.

On his authority this is a huge blunder on the part of authorities “and in some countries, those in charge would’ve resigned. Somebody should be held responsible for this”, he mentioned.

The Ghana Education Service has postponed the reopening of school for Senior High School (SHS) Form 3 students.

The SHS 3 students were expected to resume on April 6 but the GES in a release has rescheduled it for May 5, 2021.

GES noted that the action became necessary after management considered a proposal from the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).