Senior High School heads seek facilities to cater for 4-year programme

Heads of senior secondary schools around the country are racing against time to provide facilities for students who will be entering the fourth year in September.

Some of the teachers are very worried that they may not be able to complete dormitory and classroom project to accommodate the students who have to stay on in school for an extra year as a result of educational reforms introduced by the Kufuor administration.

The headmistress of Labone Senior High School, Joyce Osei-Agyeku, for example, is very frustrated.

He told Joy News that although there is a contractor on site building a 12-unit classroom block for the school, he is unsure when the project will be completed.

Deputy Education Minister, Dr. J. S. Annan, however, says government is awaiting the availability of funds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) as well as donor partners to put up more classroom and dormitory structures in Senior High Schools across the country.

“Alternative strategies are being sought including ongoing negotiations with international partners, private funding agencies and the use of alternative materials to quickly put up classroom blocks,” he indicated.

The four-year SHS, introduced under the Kufuor administration, has been fraught with a lot of challenges.

A forum held recently on the issue recommended that the number of years be reverted to three years.

Heads of schools across the country complain of paucity of infrastructure and the lack of requisite text books to cater for the objectives outlined in the syllabi.