Dr Nii Moi Thompson’s Prescription Must Be Subjected To Critical Analysis

A former Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, has advised the government to abolish the boarding school system to sustain the free Senior High School (SHS) initiative. His advice follows reports that the laudable programme is consuming the chunk of our resources.

“I don't know of any country anywhere that provides free secondary school education for boarding school students. It's simply prohibitive, you can't sustain that. So, if you want to sustain the free SHS system, then we need to abolish the boarding school system and free the resources to expand facilities,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday.

“When these people [NPP] came into office and they were meeting on free SHS, I offered a number of times to sit in the meeting and share ideas and research, but they declined, because, somehow, I was considered as an enemy or whatever. But they don't have problems bringing in foreigners to come and give them all sorts of poisonous ideas that have got us into this mess.”

“As a Ghanaian, I took an interest in that, and we studied these things. It is doable, but they need to approach it properly; they need to look at the boarding school. The same way the body of a Tico wasn't made for Land Cruiser, the boarding school system wasn't made for free tuition,” he added. Using the Kindergarten to Junior High School day model, Dr. Nii Moi said: “What is wrong with doing the same thing for only three more years [at the SHS level]?”

Since Dr Nii Moi Thompson is one of the leading economists in the country, one cannot throw away his ideas and suggestions without first subjecting them to critical analysis. We are, therefore, calling on the Ministry of Education, and the Akufo-Addo government as a whole, to study the idea and see how best they can modify it to suit the interest of the country.

The Chronicle does not, however, buy into this idea of scraping the boarding school system, which has been in existence for decades. Based on the current situation we have found ourselves in as a country, Dr Nii Moi's idea sounds good, because it will lessen the pressure on our resources to make free money available to tackle other sectors of the economy.

When students are coming from their own homes, the government would only be responsible for the payment of tuition fees. The issue of accommodation and feeding, which are the most expensive component of school fees, would no more be there.

But, the other side of the coin is, should Dr Nii Moi's prescription be accepted, how are our students, who are mostly between the ages of 14 and 15 when they first enter the SHS, going to find accommodation in Cape Coast, which is the hub of our secondary education, when these students are coming from faraway places like Kumasi, Accra, Tamale, Ho, and Sunyani among others? Mind you, at this stage, some of these children cannot take decisions on their own, and, therefore, allowing them to live their own lives could be dangerous.

We should also not forget about the fact that the boarding school system is what has put this country together as a unit. Because of the way our education has been structured, students come from all corners of the country to congregate at one place. In so doing, they study and understand each other's culture and region. The inter marriages among the various ethnic groups in the country is deeply rooted in this boarding school system, as most of the marriages are linked to friendships that started way back in the secondary schools.

In the Gulf states and some parts of Africa, it is almost sacrilegious for Christians and Muslims to inter-mingle, let alone make any attempt to marry, but the situation is not the same in Ghana, because we understand and respect each other's religion, after living together for some years in the secondary schools.

The points we have raised are enough indication that the boarding school system has enough advantages. But, if, as a country, we are to listen to Dr Nii Moi, then we must critically look at both the pros and cons for the boarding school and day school systems. If the pros for the boarding school far outweigh that of the day school, which we believe is the case, then there will be no need to change the status quo. On the other hand, if the authorities think collapsing the boarding system is the best way to go, the goal must be pursued.