Voice of a concern citizen: IF IT IS NOT INDENDED, IT SHOULD NOT BE REPEATED.

By: Yusuf Ibrahim Mana, January, 2023.
Since the inception of 2007, The Ghanaian senior secondary school has been in the court of politicians. It has been kicked by a party from a situation to another, just as the soccer player passes a ball from a position to another. Also, there has been unprecedented decline in the economy. If this is not intended to manipulate our education and economy for an internal or external personal interest, then it should not be repeated or continued.
We can not deny the fact – for it is historically, and even presently known to good observers- that, almost all the colonial masters succeeded in leaving behind a long term allies whose reactions do not prove that, they have the spirit of devotion to sacrifice for their nations, rather their actions indicate that, they directly or indirectly serve the oppressors interest in the name of politics or economy than serving their people.
However, as whether the colonial masters left behind political or financial allies in this country or not, and as whether some of our previous and current political leaders are among those allies or not is not the point of concentration here. The concern here is, if the three to four and four to three years change in the senior secondary school by political leaders, and if the economic decline is not intended then it should not be repeated or continued.
After the colonial masters left Ghana as a skeleton with little or without flesh for some decades, our ancestors were independently through our educational system able to bring up energetic, intellectual and abled minds who massively contributed educationally and economically to the development of this nation and the nation of the colonial masters. A typical example of those minds was Prof. John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, who worked as a lecturer in Ghana, and finally became the president of this lovely nation. It is the same educational system that bore a fruit to John Agyekum Kufuor who also became president of this great nation.

Without any doubt, it was president Kofuor who in 2007 introduced the Senior High School (previously known as senior secondary school), and expanded the system from three to four years but maintaining the curriculum. In fact, before the duration was extended to four years, students used to pass and come out with good grades, and after the extension, Dr. Nana Akua Anyidoho- a Senior Research Fellow at ISSER, as reported by isser confirmed in a noted analysis of West African Examination Council (WAEC) data that ” If only you are using examination results as an indicator of quality, then the four-year duration for senior high schools has produced a better examination results”. She added, the analysis “puts this down to the fact that the four-year SHS program gives SHS students more time to transition and to go through the curriculum before the terminal examination which can take up a large part of the final year of school.” (https://isser.ug.edu.gh)

Upon the unprecedented results which Ghanaians noticed in extending the S.H.S duration, after three years, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) reverted the policy of the four years to three-year system after it regained power in 2009. As a result of that, there were no graduates in 2010, and it led to two cohorts graduation in 2013. But the economic stability the country experienced by then was far better than the current situation in 2022 in the New Patriotic Party(NPP) government under the leadership of Nana Ado Dankw.

Moreover, some people may have the notion that, financial constraints was the obstacle to prevent the subsequent government from continuing with the policy of four years duration in the S.H.S, but this should not be a reason to deprive our youth anything that will help build them for the betterment of our own motherland. Also, whatever amount- irrespective of how much it may be- that the nation spends in the course of providing quality education for her citizens is never an amount that can break the country’s backbone or drain more than 10% of it’s total economy. And if we fail to spend this on education, then what else in reality will deserve it?
Additionally, citifmonline in 2017 reported that, the Minister of Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour revealed that, government is monitoring the three-year SHS system to inform a possible review to back to four years. He said:
“…If it is found out the four years is better than three years in training our children, then money should not be the basis in denying them that four years… It is not only access, but it also includes quality, and if it is four years that will give them quality and that is what the people want, so be it.”

Interestingly, when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under Akoffu Ado gained power in 2017, he made the S.H.S education free. Even though, it did not yield quality outcome than the preceded years, but proved that, financial constraint is never the obstacle to maintain the four years policy in S.H.S.
We are in January, 2023, and will conduct election next year 2024 to select a new leader, since the ruling party may retain the power or lost it for another, and since the issue of changing the S.H.S duration from three to four or four to three years is not due to financial constraint, then if only changing the S.H.S duration and the economic decline is not intended to serve an internal or external personal interest, then it should not be repeated or continued, so as to maintain the stability of the senior secondary school education and stability in the economy of the nation for the betterment of the nation.