THE next New Patriotic Party government under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will initiate and implement a policy that will eventually smoothen the transition of students from the Junior High School system to the Senior High School system as part of basic education.
The purpose of this initiative is to make SHS the first exit point for pupils, removing the current situation which sees 50 percent of JHS pupils dropping out after failing the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
Nana Akufo-Addo believes the current system where majority of the youth exit the educational ladder at the end of Junior High School means �we are building a future of hopelessness for a dangerously high number of our youth. This must stop and we must begin that necessary process by making it impossible to consider yourself a graduate after JHS,� he told the New Statesman.
�What the youth of our country require can be brought down to three basic things: education, skills and jobs. Without the foundation of quality education the other two become a chanced struggle and the quality of tuition a child receives before the age of 16 can make or break his or her future,� the NPP flagbearer said.
�We do not intend to make it merely impossible to leave school after JHS; we are determined to tackle the more important issue of the quality of education that we offer to our future leaders. This means at the heart of our Education Policy will be what we have called, 'Teachers First'. We are determined to put the needs of the teacher and hence the quality of tuition for our children at the very heart of the next NPP policy on education,� he stressed.
�Under the current circumstance, large numbers of young people are joining an already large pool of young unemployed people who are a danger to the nation's stability, growth and development. Instead, the termination point should be at least the Senior High School level,� he told Kojo Oppong Nkrumah of the Big Breakfast Show.
A member of Nana Addo's Policy Unit and Member of Parliament for Techiman North, Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, told the New Statesman, �A continuous basic education up to the Senior High level, fits into Nana Akufo-Addo's plan to make secondary education free and compulsory.�
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