No desks. No dormitories. No classrooms. Were we ready for the four years
system?
Anyway, Awudome Senior High School (AWUSCO) should count herself lucky. At
least, their six unit classroom block was handed over to them in September 2010.
The project formed part of government’s infrastructure improvement programme in
preparedness for the four years system.
I was excited for two reasons when I heard that AWUSCO’s six unit classroom
block was handed over to the school’s administrators. One, the image of my
former school is lifted high and two, admission of first year students into the
school will be hustle free considering the probable problems of the four years
system.
As a matter of luck, National Service Scheme posted me to Awudome SHS to serve
mother Ghana. Thanks to the 40th anniversary planning committee (celebrated in
2003), the general outlook of the school befits the grade “A” status conferred
on it by the Ghana Education Service. I’m highly impressed with the
transformation the school underwent in the last ten years.
However, AWUSCO still has problems; problems created by our policy makers. When
will politicians do us (ordinary Ghanaian) any good? Upon my arrival in the
school, I discovered that there are more problems associated with the four years
SHS policy than classrooms. Who created these problems? Was it former president
J.A. Kufour’s led administration or it is the Prof’s led administration? I’m not
and do not intend to play any blame game. I’m only looking at the problem from
its genesis. After all, Ola Rotimi says when trees fall on trees, the top-most
one must be removed first.
A PTA building which uses to house a canteen, a stationary shop, a guardian and
counseling office and a food and nutrition laboratory in the 1990s is now being
used as dormitory for boys. Why? It’s the demand of the four years system.
Despite this improvise dormitory, students still sleep on corridors in the
night. If students in a grade “A” school can’t find place to sleep, then I’m
sincerely sorry for those who find themselves in the lower grade schools. My God
be their shepherd.
Dinning session in AWUSCO now comes in two segments. The dinning hall has a
maximum seating capacity of eight hundred. It now caters for over one thousand
and five hundred boarding students. Wait a minute! Is this what is happening in
other schools too as a result of the four years system? And so what you asked?
There is nothing more important than time in an academic institution. The amount
of time wasted during dinning is my concern. If you care to know, at the Ghana
Institute of Journalism (GIJ) lectures go on even when an SRC week event meant
for students is ongoing. That is how time conscious GIJ lecturers can be!
I think you can help me find answers to the following questions, since I’m not
able to answer them myself. Did our policy makers anticipate these problems?
What measures did they put in place to solve them? None? What do they take
Ghanaians for? For how long will they continue to play “jasikele” with our
educational system?
Ghana needs quality education for rapid development and Ghanaians need quality
education to be able to take up leadership positions around the globe. Don’t we
want the likes of Kofi Annan, Ambassador Gbehor and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah anymore?
Did governments at their time toyed with the educational system like what is
happening today? This whole “nonsense” must stop.
Initially, I thought the Conference of Heads of Assisted Schools was making too
much “noise” over this four years SHS system. After all, the standard of
education is falling and if measures are being put in place to improve it, why
don’t we support it. But I now understand why CHASS was making the “noise”. In
fact, no father or mother wants to see his or her children sleep outside, expose
to the dangers of the night. Neither do they want to see them stand while eating
or learning.
Talking about the falling standards of education and improving it; what was the
recommendation of the educational reform commission whose report former
president Kufour implemented? Was it to increase the number of years of the then
Senior Secondary School to four years or to maintain the three years and improve
upon facilities and conditions of service for teachers? Anyway, this is a
discussion for another platform.
Now, when those who were admitted to first year finally settled for teaching to
start, I realised that they were no desks for their use. How can this be?
Classrooms without desks? How do they expect the students to learn? These were
some of the questions that ran through my mind. Until the arrival of these
first year students, they were enough desks. How can a policy that grows a
school’s population be implemented without improving infrastructure and
providing facilities that will accommodate the students and also facilitate
teaching and learning? This must not happen again.
We need educated Ghanaians to drive the country’s work force. Let policy markers
not toy with the country’s educational system. Whether good or bad, Professor
Mill’s administration is gone back to the three years system. Successive
governments must respect this decision in the interest of mother Ghana.
Edwin S. K. Koge
(The writer is a national service person at the Modern Languages Department of
Awudome SHS and the President of Ho Municipal NASPA)
