By A. Kofoya-Tetteh
THE Ministry of Education has taken all the necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition and normalisation of the Senior Secondary School (SSS) academic year from January to December to September to June by the year 2003.
The Minister of Education, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, stated this when he answered questions in Parliament yesterday.
He said with these measures in place, the academic performance of students and general educational standard in the country will not be jeopardised.
The NDC Member for Suhum, Mr. Solomon Akwetey Kodjo, had asked the minister about the preparations and plans put in place to ensure a smooth change of the SSS year.
Mr. Spio-Garbrah said under a two-and-half year synchronisation period which would last between June 2000 and 2003, all the three transitional batches of senior secondary school students would have completed their courses and written their final examinations in June 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Class movements from the JSS to the SSS, the minister said would also go on smoothly without any hold-ups or backlogs during or after the transition.
Giving the background of the issue, he said until 1990, the academic year for secondary schools was September to June but when the first group of JSS graduates passed out the same year, certain conditions made it impossible for them to enter the SSS in September the same year.
This he said was due to the fact that the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) had for the first time to deal with over 100,000 candidates at a single sitting, using old facilities coupled with other problems such as human error which led to the delay in releasing that year`s examination results.
He said in order not to make the students stay at home for a whole year, it was decided to run the SSS course from January to December while all other levels of education run the old September to June academic year.
The minister said the current change-over has become necessary due to a number of factors.
This, he said include a common academic year for all levels of education to facilitate transition from one stage to another in the same year and common holidays for teachers at all levels for better planning and execution of in-service training and workshops for teachers.
The minister said, it would also ensure that co-ordination meetings and marking of scripts by WAEC are done during the long vacations so that secondary school classes are no longer disrupted.
Ghana, he said would be in the position to join a programme whereby students in the English-speaking West African sub-region write a joint examination to be known as the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)
Answering another question from Mr. Edward Osei-Kwaku (NPP,Asokwa West), the minister said there are 6606 JSS in the country out of which 730 are private
He said a survey conducted in 1998 in eight regions indicated that out of the 1,232 JSS in those regions, 23 per cent had completed their workshops.
The minister who spent nearly an hour in the House dwelt on other aspects of the ministry such as the possibility of changing school uniforms, being demanded by a section of the public as well as examination malpractices and assured the MPs that the ministry is doing the best to solve all the inherent problems in that sector.
