Gov�t Puts 3-Year SHS on Hold

The Minister of Education, Hon Alex Narh Tetteh-Enyo has debunked arguments that successive governments have been toying with Ghana�s Educational system owing to the plethora of back-and-forth decisions regarding the sector. According to the Minister, �No government has every toyed with the educational system. Rather, successive governments have tried to improve the system� and the current government is doing the same. The Minister was addressing a press in Accra where he defended Government�s latest decision to postpone the reversion of Senior High School (SHS) education to three years from the present four years. In early August, Government announced its intention to reverse SHS education to three years and said the reversion will start in September 2009. But �Cabinet directed that the Ministry of Education should implement admission of students for a 3-year programme, beginning from 2010/2011 academic year�� Mr Tetteh-Enyo said on Wednesday, in what appears to be a retreat by government which had earlier indicated it would implement the 3-year scheme despite public outcry. This means that students to be admitted �in a matter of weeks� to SHS will be placed on the current four-year-system. This will bring to three the number of batches admitted to do dour years in SHS since the current system began in 2007. Mr Tetteh-Enyo attributed the postponement to the need to amend the section of the Education Act 2008 (Act 778), which provides for a four-year SHS education. Moreover, there is the need for revision of syllabi and provision of facilities such as classrooms, laboratories and textbooks.