Changes in SHS timetable discrediting Free SHS – Asare
Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch says the regular changes in the SHS timetable each academic year are putting the popular government flagship Free Senior High School (Free SHS) program in a bad light.
His comment comes after the Ghana Education Service (GES) after asking final-year SHS students to go home as a result of a mid-semester break later informed students to stay on campus to observe the midterm break.
In a statement copied to AcademicWeek, the Education Service said the cancellation of the midterm break was on the advice of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) as part of measures to slow and curb global Covid-19 in some schools.
But, Mr Asare reacting to the midterm break said erratic changes in the SHS timetable not only inconvenience parents, students and teachers but also embarrass the central government by putting the free SHS into a bad state.
“I have always complained that erratic changes to a highly uncertain SHS calendar do not only inconvenience parents, students and teachers, but embarrasses the government by putting the free SHS into a bad light,” the Director stated.
He added, “I have discussed these issues with the Minister not once, and have always insisted that, until the Education Service begins to sanction those sleeping on their jobs, toying with our SHS academic timetable, nothing will change.”
According to the Education Think Tank (Africa Education Watch) Executive Director If the impunity in the excuse of the double-track system is not broken, the Senior High School (SHS) timetable will remain to change like an amoeba.
