2013 SHS Graduates To Enter Varsities Same Time

Mr Lee Ocran (extreme left) Minister of Education being assisted by Mrs Elizabeth Amoah Tetteh, to cut the tape to open an exhibition mounted by the GES. Those with them are Ms Benedicta Naana Biney (right) Acting Director-General of the GES and Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, GES Council Member. Measures are currently being put in place to ensure that both graduates of the three-year and four-year systems of senior high school enter university and other tertiary institutions at the same time next year, the Minister of Education, Mr Lee Ocran has announced.

He gave the assurance that the two batches of final year SHS students who will complete school in 2013 will be given placements in the tertiary institutions across the country.

Next year, the first batch of three-year SHS graduates under the Professor Mills administration and the final batch of four-year SHS graduates will write the 2013 May-June West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Concerns have been raised as to how the two batches or streams (Forms 3 and 4) of SHS graduates would be given admissions in the various universities and tertiary institutions, especially the public ones, given the limited number of spaces available in those institutions.

“However, Mr Ocran, speaking at the opening of an exhibition by the Ghana Education Service (GES) as part of activities to mark Public Service Week Celebration in Accra said no matter what it took, the two batches of graduates would have admissions in tertiary institutions next year.

“Nobody will stay at home,” he assured, adding that failure to do that will result in one batch of graduates staying home for a whole year.

The cycle, he said, would then continue again after another year, thereby resulting in a backlog of students.

Mr Ocran said the ministry was thinking seriously about what to do as regards the writing of the WASSCE next year.

“Should they write the same examination?” he asked. “We have to think seriously about this,” he added.

The government, he said, was all about the citizenry, and charged members of the public service to play the roles expected of them to ensure that the government succeeds in its programmes of activities for the betterment of the people.

He said there was no government without a public service and urged public servants to justify the salaries they were taking.

Mr Ocran said the 2012 United Nations and Africa Public Service Day had come at a time when citizens the world over were demanding for better governance, greater participation in public affairs and enhanced integrity, equity and accountability of public leaders.

He urged the ministry, the GES and other agencies to act with integrity, be capable of designing and implementing innovative strategies, practices and tools that will enable “us to transform our challenges into opportunities for socioeconomic development of our country.”

“I wish to charge all the celebrants of the Public Service Week in the MOE, the GES and elsewhere to relook how to build the capacities of leaders in the area of integrity, transparency and accountability as well as service,” he said.

The acting Director General of the GES, Ms Benedicta Naana Biney, noted that public servants were heroes and heroines who never looked back nor lost their sense of commitment and responsibility in the face of adversity.

“We have a collective responsibility to discharge our duties to the best of our abilities towards the development of our country, and if possible to help other countries, especially those engulfed in conflicts to rebuild their public institutions,” she said.

She indicated that the Africa Public Service Day was derived from the collective work of the Pan African Ministers Programme on governance and public administration.

A member of the GES Council, Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, said there was a need for a change of mindset of public servants.

A Deputy Director General of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, said the GES was the biggest agency under the Public Services Commission, and that there were a lot of things people were not aware about.

He said the exhibition was, therefore, an opportunity for the service to showcase some of the things it was doing.