Policy analyst and Vice President of Imani Centre for Policy and Education says the country is putting its elite schools at risk with the implementation of Free Senior High School (SHS) policy.
Kofi Bentil says the development is bad for education in Ghana because every country needs its Ivy League schools.
"Every country needs to protect some institutions and make them institutions of excellence at every level. We should not destroy the Presecs, Wesley Girls, Mfastipim, Holy Child, Ghana National Colleges, and their likes that produced us," he said.
Speaking on Joy FM/MultiTv’s news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday, he said there is the need to produce more of such elite schools and not destroy them with policies such as the free SHS.
He then enumerated five key elements that President Nana Akufo-Addo's flagship education policy must have to be successful.
Kofi Bentil says the Free Senior high school (SHS) policy should have a strong champion, political commitment by leaders, a competent implementation team, humility to accept errors and to make amends as well as a continuous improvement in the system.
Although the programme is scheduled to take off next week, Mr Bentil explained that the President has to champion it.
“I have sat down to discuss the policy with the President and we were not agreeing but he was forceful enough to say ‘I will do this no matter what. This is what we need in this country and I will find the resources for it’.
“When you get that level of political commitment, there is hope. It is not like civil society coming up with an idea and the political leadership dancing around it, this is their own and they are unified about it to make it succeed," Mr Bentil said.
He said President Akufo-Addo's commitment must serve as a template for all political parties to use in policy implementation if they want to succeed.
Some disgruntled parents and guardians last Tuesday besieged the premises of the Education Ministry to express their frustration over the non-placement of their wards in their preferred schools.
During a visit to the Ministry, Joy News witnessed some unhappy parents with their wards making frantic efforts to get their preferred placement.
Some also complained of their inability to access the placement website.
One parent accused officials of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) of placing his ward in a day school instead of a boarding school.
He alleged that because of the Government’s Free SHS policy, the ward was placed in a low rated school, which he is not happy about.
“People prefer to pay and send their wards to schools of their choice, we don’t want any free SHS,” another frustrated guardian said.
Some parents insisted that because the Government had already paid for the specified number of students under the policy, it placed them randomly in any school without recourse to their selected schools.
But Mr. Bentil who has been an ardent critic of the Free SHS policy said although he cannot speak to the competence of the team in charge of implementing the programme, "everything I see and hear gives me hope that they are on the right course.”
He said the attitude of the Deputy Education Minister and his humility to admit errors and the preparedness to make amends will take the policy far.
According to him, the policy is important to the entire country, and not only the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He said the policy may be fraught with problems currently, however, if policy implementers should keep working at it till they get it right.
"Speaking as somebody who started criticising it, I am at a point where there are few things in this country which I will trust politicians on generally, but with Free SHS I think we have the best shot possible to get it right," he said.
Source: myjoyonline.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa What a one-way analysis Kofi If your child is bright but unfortunately does not get any of the SO CALLED IVY schools it is equally an opportunity for him or her to shine in the other schools and affect the average students to sit up too... in the end schools we least expected will be seen topping in exams and we can all tell the end from there...
Could you articulate what exactly would cause adulteration of the so called “IVY Schools” with the concept of SHS free fee system, as you put it “ … putting its elite schools at risk with the implementation of Free Senior High School (SHS) policy…we should not destroy the…” We were at Legon, geography dept. together as students and on completion served as Teaching Assistants together at the same department. I take personal interest in your analysis and expect you to be more plain and succinct in your observations. However you did not in this presentation account for the variables that put the so called “IVY schools” at risk. Is it about all students having access to these schools or what’s is it that could deface them. Also thinking that the SHS Free system must become with its imports, if the “IVYs” should be hedged within it (if need be) how do we a go about it? Do you also think “free” equally means unrestricted access to all types of schools and their human and other resources by all that qualify? Think about this too, mate!! Ta.
So, because you want some schools to call themselves, Ivy League, plenty people should be denied secondary education? Is that it?
Bentil is telling us that we should maintain a class society in education at the expense of the greater good of educating as many people. He forgets that the barbaric civil wars across africa are made possible by having large number of illiterates. fooooooooooooooooooooolish man.
Bentil, are the Ivy League schools you talk about public or private? Are they not private? The free SHS is public, so why are you not making sense?
A single parent, a trader at Makola Market had her child qualifying to be amongst the 105 students admitted to Mfantsipim School in the 70s. The ideal of IVY League schools must be STOPPED by those who are propagating it. Raw students were admitted not considering their background but based on their Common Entrance Examination results. Some even came to school with chamber pots because of their background and they were able to make it. THIS IVY LEAGUE SCHOOL ISSUE DOES NOT EXIST AND MUST NOT BE PROMOTED.
The part I support in Mr. Bentil's piece is the need for humility to accept corrections and the political commitment. However, his it on destroying the so called Ivy League schools is a little too much on the side of maintaining the status quo and not giving all all a level playing field. At best it breeds class distinction, and at worst, it deprives the nation of brains from the poor. It in a sense resembles the cast system of India. That is very sad!!! On a level playing field, Ghana will come to know that the so called rural poor does not always equate to academic dumbness, just as the city rich does not always guarantee academic smartness. I think it is the duty of every good government is to endeavour to bridge the rural-urban inequalities. I believe this is a way out of that.
In the SHS-policy there is an Afirmative Clause that the 'IVY'League Schools like Prempeh College, Adisadel college should allocate 30% enrollment to qualified JHS-students from not very good Schools in the rural poor communities. Who despite the prevailing poor conditions, like poor school facilities, unlike those of urban areas, and that notwithstanding, have managed to attain good passes.And I think Kofi was making a point that, that must not be done to compromise the quality and efficiency that bestow on those schools as 'IVY' league Schools. And that every country needs its Ivy League Schools. In fact Iam not speaking for Kofi but that was what i got from his Submission.
All these elites school only produce corrupt and ***barred word*** as leaders in the country, and he's one, does he really think how a cocoa farmer struggle to send his kids to school education,yet the cocoa farmer product is the backbone of the country's economy.... the elites are only talkative no- sense
Mr. Bentil you have not clearly told us what will destroy these so called ivy schools with the FREE SHS policy. Remember that children who do extremely well at the BECE level are placed in these "HIGH" schools based on the CSSPS. So come again to make a good and reasonable point to support your point.