SHS Education: Focus Should Be On Content Not Duration - Ablakwa

The issue of Senior High School (SHS) Education duration has been a matter of controversy in this country. Every government has the number of years it believes SHS students should spend in school. A couple of years ago, the country had a three year education system at the Senior High level, then it metamorphosed into four years and now it is back to three years. For this academic year, there are two batches of students who are participating in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). They are products of a three and a four year education period changed by different administrations. Speaking to the issue, Deputy Minister designate for Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the logistics as well as content of education must be the issue of contention and not duration. He told the Appointments Committee of Parliament when he was being vetted on Wednesday that a student can spend several years in school, however, without the right and needed logistics, he or she will gain nothing worthwhile from the education. ��It is not really about the duration but it�s about the content, quality. If you put people in school for about five or six years and you are doing nothing about text books, logistics; making sure you motivate teachers and provide the equipments needed, it can be there for seven years and nothing good will come out of the students. However, if you have another student with all these facilities spending two years in school, he or she will do better than spending more years in school without those facilities,� he asserted. According to Mr. Ablakwa, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu constituency, there is no need for the lives of students to be �toyed� with, �we should rather focus on the content�. �There has been too much toying with issues which may not be germane in terms of duration. It doesn�t matter if it is three years or four years and I think that rather than calling a press conference and go through all these changes, we should rather use those resources and energy to improve quality�� he added.