Accra (Greater Accra) 22 Jan. '98
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 Jan. '98 Headmasters of public and private secondary schools are faced with one problem-how to select JSS pupils. However, in what is becoming an annual ritual, one has too many pupils to choose from while the other has virtually none. And at the three-day selection of JSS graduates at Achimota School today, the issue that raises emotions at this time of the year and is forgotten when the SSS selection season is over, raised its ugly head again. Heads of most public senior secondary schools are overwhelmed by the number of qualified JSS pupils who have selected their schools, but their counterparts in the private sector are battling with how to attract the rejects. The headmaster of the Presbyterian secondary school, Legon, for instance, has to choose 520 applicants from 1,200 but that of city business college is yet to know where his candidates will come from. The headmistress of Accra Academy, Mrs. Beatrice Lokko, said she could only take 400 candidate out of 1,477 while that of St. Mary's secondary school said she has places for 240 candidates out of 1,150 qualified candidates. Opening the meeting, the director of education for greater Accra, Mr. Lawrence Clocuh, announced that only 40 percent of JSS pupils who qualify for placement in Senior Secondary Schools will gain admission to public schools. Mr. Clocuh therefore invited heads of private schools to complement the efforts of the public schools. Mr. Clocuh urged the district education oversight committees to work for the expansion of facilities in the schools, but the private schools screamed foul. The reverend Dr. Emmanuel Adu Gyamfi, chairman of the conference of heads of private secondary schools, told journalists that the expansion of public schools will spell the doom of private schools. Reverend Adu Gyamfi said there are enough private schools to ABC ORB qualified candidates and called on the Ghana Education Service to list them among schools presented to candidates for selection. But this persistent demand may have to wait probably until the next century to be met. Reverend Adu Gyamfi said even though they had been invited to take candidates who were not selected, parents of such children often come to their schools to abuse them for selecting the cards. The few we are able to admit are often withdrawn mid-stream and sent to public schools without officially requesting for their transfers. We often lose textbooks and school fees as a result of these withdrawals and would therefore like the GES to address this issue. gri
