Govt Reconsiders 4-Year SHS System

Government is considering re-introducing the four-year senior high school system which was reversed by the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) administration.

The Minister of Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffuor who made this known Wednesday at the launch of the Ghana Social Development Outlook 2016 said government is currently reviewing the three-year duration to inform its decision.

The NPP administration under President John Kufuor introduced the four-year Senior High School programme in 2007; but this was reversed to three-years after the NDC came into power in 2009.

According to Prof Gyan-Baffuor, the current system which is effectively about two and a half years inhibited a thorough treatment of the syllabus; thus government is considering ways “to make sure that this three years becomes almost three years.”

“The time lost, we have to make it up. That is the first thing that we are trying to do now, and based on that, we can now use the analysis that they do after that time, to see what the public thinks and to decide on whether we move for three years or four years.

“This assessment will find out whether if they are given enough time within the three-year period, the students will do better than they have been doing with the two-and-half-year period,” he said.

“…If it is found out the four years is better than three years in training our children, then money should not be the basis in denying them that four years… It is not only access, but it also includes quality, and if it is four years that will give them quality and that is what the people want, so be it,” he added.

Prof Gyan-Baffuor reiterated that government’s interventions in the educational sector is to make sure that money is not an obstruction to parents to get their wards educated.