Tackle problems of education not SHS duration--NUGS advises

Page 11
Feb 2, 2009

THE National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has said that instead of spending resources on debating the duration of the senior high school (SHS), the country should rather direct its efforts at tackling the problems facing the educational sector.
It said the back and forth approach, especially by politicians on the number of years to be spent in SHS threatened the country’s future and stressed the need for the country to be decisive.
The President of NUGS, Mr Ishmael Tweneboah-Kodua, told the Daily Graphic that it was time politicians stopped experimenting with the future of students.
He said there was the need for succeeding governments to build on what their predecessors had done, rather than changing the number of years which tended to create confusion.
He said three or four years of SHS was not the issue, and that what needed to be looked at were the provision of infrastructure, teaching and learning materials and the motivation of teachers, among other things.
Tweneboah-Kodua said there was a focus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), during 2007, adding that schools were yet to be provided with computers for the programme.
A similar problem was with the 1987 reform which also failed to provide workshops as stipulated under the reform.
“We don’t have textbooks, equipment for laboratories and other teaching and learning materials. We don’t have classrooms and students are studying under trees,” he noted, adding that “these are what we are supposed to be addressing and not the duration of the SHS”.
Mr Tweneboah-Koduah said if these problems are not addressed, the number of years spent in school would not have any impact on the educational system.
He cited the large number of candidates who performed poorly in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), and said there was the need to address such a major problem since it did not speak well of the educational system.
Meanwhile, NUGS has endorsed all the legitimate actions by students of the Wa Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), to resolve the leadership crisis there.
“We view with serious concern the suspension of Mr Naab Alphonse as the Central President of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the University. The increasing interference with matters affecting students by school authorities especially management of the UDS, is unfortunate and regrettable,” it said.
A statement issued by NUGS said treating adults in tertiary institutions as though they were primary school kids was reprehensible to say the least.
It said the authorities of UDS had no mandate to suspend Mr Naab as the SRC President because they did not elect him, adding that “If he flagrantly violates any school rule, the best the university authorities could do was to apply the school regulations proportionate to whatever crime he may have committed and not arbitrarily suspend him as the President of the Students Representative Council”.