Government to reduce number of SHSs from 13,000 to 2,500

The Ministry of Education is set to reduce the number of Senior High Schools (SHSs) in Ghana from 13,000 to 2500 after re-engineering the country’s educational system to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The new system will be called the Junior Senior High School.

Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum explained that “We have awarded contract for about 15 schools that are going to be what we call lower secondary.

“That facilities we are providing is just like any high school facility and every one of these schools has library, biology, chemistry and physics lab. Beautiful school buildings and they are coming to a community near you very soon.

“In 2023 when we open those schools you are going to see how we are going to provide six years quality secondary education and not three years plus some three years old middle school-led education that we call high school,” he told journalists in Accra on Tuesday December 14.

Dr Adutwum who is also lawmaker for Bosomtwe had earlier said the government was determined to improve STEM education in the country.

He said the administration was going to partner various stakeholders including private sector operators to provide the much-needed infrastructure like laboratories, workshops, and lecture rooms for STEM based institutions.

“With the Government pursuing strategies aimed at increasing the Gross Tertiary Enrollment Ratio (GTER) from the current 18.84% to 40% by 2030, it is in our interest to continuously expand the infrastructural base of the various tertiary institutions,” Dr. Adutwum said.

He added, “We are all aware of the many ongoing projects on our tertiary campuses, some of which have been abandoned for years, while others are in urgent need of additional Government funding for completion”.

---3news.com