SHS TO GO FOR 3 YRS-Tettey-Enyo

Lead Story, Mon Jan 26, 2009
story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Minister of Education-designate, Mr Alexander Tettey-Enyo, has dropped the hint that one of the first things the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is likely to do in the educational sector is abolish the four-year duration of the senior high school (SHS) and revert to the earlier three-year programme.
Outlining his vision for the Education Ministry to which he had been nominated as minister by President John Evans Atta Mills, Mr Tettey-Enyo, a former acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, said the four-year programme had been announced by the past administration without putting in place the needed infrastructure, syllabi and textbooks to make it work.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ada stated that the government would initiate moves to abolish the four-year programme by first seeking an amendment to the Education Law which was passed by the Fourth Parliament last year.
The first batch of four-year SHS students under the reforms introduced by the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is expected to enter the fourth year in the 2010/2011 academic year.
He said changing the name of junior secondary schools (JSS) to junior high schools (JHS) and that of senior secondary schools (SSS) to senior high schools was, however, not an issue.
“What is important is the duration of the system and the new government will go strictly by its manifesto and reverse the decision of the NPP government,” he noted.
Explaining why the NDC deemed it fit to re-introduce the three-year second-cycle education, Mr Tettey-Enyo said the various committees and conferences on the duration of the country’s education supported the three -year system.
He said the change in the duration from three to four years was a political decision taken by the NPP, since even the Anamoah-Mensah Committee which it put in place endorsed the three-year duration.
“It was, therefore, surprising that the then government came out with a White Paper to introduce the four-year secondary system,” he said.
He noted that even though a lot of responsibilities had been taken over by the government, the four-year duration would put a lot of stress on parents and heads of second-cycle institutions.
Commenting on the frequent policy changes in education, Mr Tettey-Enyo stated that there was the need for a stabilised educational system which could be reviewed from time to time to suit changing social, economic and technological trends.
On the training of teachers, he indicated that efforts would be made to upgrade all teacher training colleges to tertiary institutions, while all courses offered at the basic school level would be taught at the tertiary level.
He added that the NDC was committed to its campaign pledges to teachers and so everything possible would be done to improve on their conditions of service.
He stated that presently there was lack of clarity in the salary levels of teachers on different grades and expressed the hope that the operation of the single spine pay system would address such anomalies to enable teachers to know what they were entitled to every month.
In 1990, Mr Tettey-Enyo was the Director in charge of Secondary Education, while in 1994 he was assigned a new position as Director in charge of Manpower and Training, before becoming the Deputy Director-General in 1999.
In 2000, the presidential nominee became the acting Director-General of the GES and even though he was due for retirement that year, he had an extended contract to stay on till 2001.