Getting second cycle kids to school

Getting second cycle kids to school
Education, they say, is key to development. It is in the recognition of this fact that the state of Ghana spends heavily to prepare its youth for the future. Unfortunately, the state that spends a very large chunk of its budget on education, appears to have stepped on the self-destruct gear, and is driving the future of our kids and the nation down the sloppy road to a future without hope.

One of the actions taken by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of President John Evans Atta Mills, on assuming office, was to reduce the tenure of second cycle education in Ghana, from four years to three years, without any empirical evidence of its advantage.

Evidence emerging seems to suggest that the first batch of students, who took the four year course at the Senior High School (SHS), may have done better at the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE), than their counterparts whose education at that level ended after only three years in the classroom.

The reversal to three years, obviously, means that time is of essence in getting the kids prepared for the future. Unfortunately, first year students who have been billed to complete the SSSCE syllabus in three years, are still at home half-way through the first term of the first year.

With a number of anomalies in connection with the Computer Placement Programme still unresolved, it looks like a number of the new entrants would not be in school when the first term ends.

What this means is that these unfortunate kids would have barely two and a half years to complete the course, thus putting a strain on their tutors' ability to take the students through the syllabus for each subject successfully.

To add to the problems, school fees at the second cycle have also been hyped beyond the means of most rural dwellers especially. Students are now required to pay GH¢328.70 each per academic year for those who would be admitted into the boarding house.  

Day students would be required to pay GH¢160.70 as academic user fees for the year. It is not the kind of fees parents and guardians bargained for, from the 'I Care For You' administration of President John Evans Atta Mills.

The Chronicle would like to appeal to the authorities to look at the fees again. We would like to believe that the academic user fee, for instance, would be looked at again. On paper GH¢160.70 is not that expensive, given the fact that prices of goods and services in this country are threatening to hit the roof.

All the same, we are mindful of the fact that in the rural communities especially, raising that sort of money for a child to benefit from day schooling would wipe away many parents and guardians' means of livelihood.

We are suggesting to the authorities to bring the cost of educating the Ghanaian child down by writing off the GH¢60.70 on the academic user fee. In effect, we are suggesting that the government should absorb the GH¢60.70 as a means of cushioning the poor parents and guardians, many of whom have very little or no means of footing the huge bill on education.

Education is a right, we are constantly reminded. If it were so, then the state of Ghana owes it a responsibility to ensure that as many kids as possible, benefit from quality education. While we are at it, it is pertinent to draw attention to the harm prolonging the time for freshers in second cycle education to report to school is causing to the children themselves, and the state that supports them.

Already, the idea of taking only three years to complete the SSSCE syllabus is a threat to the well-being of these children. Taking a chunk of that time off the academic calendar before our future leaders report to their various schools, cannot certainly be any incentive towards the successful completion of the programme.