Addressing Challenges Of The Free Senior High School Policy And The Falling Standards Of Education In Ghana

The introduction of Free Senior High School has transformed lives since it was introduced, a student whose family could not have afforded to pay the fees of Senior High School education prior to 2015 can now sit in class with those who could afford, curtesy, H. E John Dramani Mahama and H. E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo who introduced the Progressively Free and fee free SHS policy. The purpose of this article is to highlight some challenges with the Free Senior High School policy and propose some solutions to it.

Prior to the introduction of Free Senior High School policy, Senior High Schools had cut-off points for students to meet before they could be admitted to the schools, 'Category A' schools were the most sought after, students at the Basic schools studied so hard to meet these cut-off points which were Aggregate 6 to10 and in some cases 12. Unfortunately, the advent of free Senior High School has lowered these standards if not completely eliminating it. Today, a student who could not have qualified to be admitted in a 'Category C' school could easily be spotted in a 'Category A' school with some having aggregates as bad as 48 and 50. What could possibly have caused this? Having taught at the Basic school and working as a headteacher at the Ghana Education Service, i am not alien to the causes.

A year after the introduction of Free Senior High School by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo government, with students having aggregates which obviously warranted a resit of their Basic Education Certificate Examination, the appetite for learning hard to pass the BECE in order to be placed in a 'Category A' school began diminishing. Students at the Basic school were demotivated from learning. To them, regardless of their aggregate they would be place by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System. To add insult to injury, a directive was given by the Ghana Education Service to Headteachers not repeat any student, truancy became the order of the day.

One would have thought that the demotivation to learn to be placed in the Senior High School would have ended after placement but that has not been the case. Having had the opportunity to teach at the Senior High School,i have observed that this canker has trickled down to the Senior High School. With the withdrawal of corporal punishment and the directive not to repeat students, some students refuse to do assignments with some not turning up to write end of semester examinations. The most extreme situation i observed was a student who did not attend classes, nor did assignments and exams in year two showing up in final year to be registered to write the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations. Teachers and Headmasters are left powerless and helpless in such situations. Strangely, some of the students who are caught in this web pass their WASSCE with excellent grades.

I was not surprised to have read the complaints of Professor Oteng Ababio of the University of Ghana calling for the review of the Free Senior High School policy as the universities are being overwhelmed and burdened with as much as eighty three (83) percent of students admitted to the University of Ghana not being able to solve basic algebra. For a professor to make such a proposition, it is definitely as a result of a research conducted by him. But can the regulators of our educational system say they are not aware of the challenges associated with pre-tertiary education which is currently having a trickle-down effect on the tertiary institutions? I do not think so.

A fortnight ago, the Ghana Education Service in collaboration with NACCA began training of English Language and Mathematics teachers from Senior High Schools, with as many as 295 teachers each for English and Mathematics respectively drawn from the sixteen Regions of Ghana being trained at Sunyani in preparation towards introduction of two new subjects, Interventional Mathematics and Interventional English, to curb deficiencies in literacy and numeracy of students who enter the senior high school. The preparations of the GES and NACCA to introduce these new subjects in addition to Core Mathematics and English exonarates the assertions of Professor Oteng Ababio about Senior High School students not being able to solve basic algebra when they transition to the University of Ghana. Should this be the only solution to the challenges?

A stakeholders town hall meeting ought to be had to address the challenges that came with the Free Senior School Policy; Withdrawal of corporal punishment with no alternative forms of correcting behaviour, the withdrawal of cut-off points for placement into Senior High Schools and the directive not to repeat non-performing students ought to be looked at.

In conclusion, the rigid position of government and the aggressiveness of politicians, especially those in government, who do not want to hear the mention of Review of the Free SHS policy had to be softened as there is no programme or government policy without challenges, review would enable us have a problem - free educational system.

SAVIOUR GOKAH,
M. PHIL CANDIDATE,
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA.