3-Year SHS deferred

Page 17
Sept 3, 2009


THE Cabinet has directed the Ministry of Education to defer the three-year senior high school (SHS) programme for one year and begin its implementation from the 2010-2011 academic year.
This means that students who would be entering senior high school Form One, for the 2009-2010 academic year, would follow the current four-year programme.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, told a press conference in Accra yesterday that following Cabinet’s approval for the reversal of the duration of the senior high school from four to three years, a technical committee was set up by the ministry to draw up the modalities for the reversal, taking into consideration issues concerning infrastructure, admission procedures, financial and curriculum concerns.
“Among the committee’s findings was the fact that the Ministry of Education has to put in place the necessary facilities such as additional classrooms, laboratories and textbooks and revise the syllabuses in line with the three-year programme and amend the section of the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778) which provides for a four-year senior high school education,” he said.
He said the Cabinet also urged the ministry to set up a National Implementation Committee to deal with issues relating to infrastructure, textbooks and syllabuses for the three-year programme and address the setting up of the National Inspectorate Board, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and the National Teaching Council.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said the “Ministry of Finance was also directed to include allocations for the achievement of these goals in the 2009 supplementary budget and the annual budget for the 2010 fiscal year”.
“We wish to assure all of you that before the commencement of the 2010-2011 academic year, all the requirements will be put in place to address the challenges associated with the changeover,” he emphasised.
The Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), he said, would take approximately 14 days to run the placement software after some activities, including cleaning the master file, uploading of results and running the software, and that it would take 14 days to process the placement report.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said that would involve printing, sorting, packaging and dispatching of the materials to schools through the regional and district directorate.
“By this arrangement, it is expected that all things being equal, placement reports will be available in schools by 28th September, 2009. However, candidates could access information on placement before then, hopefully by September 15, 2009,” he said, and indicated that candidates might access their placement results through SMS on given mobile codes.
He said the SHS One students were to be in school between October 12 and 17, 2009, and charged parents to accept the placement of their children since the placement was based on the six choices made by the candidates.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said out of the 395,647 candidates who wrote the Basic Education 200,642 qualified for placement, and that “these qualified candidates are to be placed according to the order of merit in vacancies in schools of their choice.
On teacher education, the minister said, the 505 Ghana Education Service personnel who went on study leave without pay and wanted re-engagement needed to provide recruitment forms, personal record forms, certificates, application letters, pay slips, covering letters from regions, testimonials from last employers or recognised public servant during the break, as well as letters of acceptance or approval of resignation or leave of absence and study leave.
“To facilitate re-engagement of these teachers who vacated their posts by going on study leave without approval, they are to be encouraged to contact their previous district directorates and apply for re-engagement. These teachers are advised to accept postings to places where there are vacancies and their services are highly needed,” he said.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said Printex, a Ghanaian textile manufacturing company, was ready to produce the specified fabric for the production of the 1.6 million free uniforms, estimated at GH¢ 11.7 million, to be supplied to 57 deprived districts.