The Young Professionals Network (YPN) has thrown its weight behind the Double Track System of SHS Education, but has appealed to government to make quality a priority.
“We expect government to aggressively pursue the quality ingredient for secondary education concurrently as it has promised. We are certain that, this will adequately and effectively prepare Ghana’s adolescents who are going to become our future leaders, managers and professionals to face the ever uncertain future,” the Network said in a statement.
Based on last year’s enrollment, the government has projected enrollment figures for 2018 to stand at 472,730 against available seats of 290, 737 leaving a gap of 181, 993.
In order to accommodate the expected number of enrollment, the government has resolved to introduce a system called double tracking which will be similar to the semester mode of learning applicable in the universities and is expected to last for seven years.
The YPN commended the government for the “bold effort” to give access to more students.
Below is the full statement:
The Young Professionals Network expresses its fulfillment with the Double Track system of SHS education that government is introducing to expand educational opportunities for more children.
We also commend government for this bold effort to innovate towards SDG 4 on education equity and quality. To us, education is an imperative for the development of Ghana and is indispensable for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the United Nations. Our thoughts are two-fold.
The first is to commend government and the Ministry of Education for rigorously providing the conceptual discussion of equity and policy in education and attempting to develop a framework for thinking about the issues and the options that that the government have for addressing accessibility gap in senior secondary education.
The second part is to congratulate the government and the Education Ministry on how it has engaged the citizenry in examining the ways in which teething issues have been identified and defined in this innovative educational equity programme, and the kinds of strategies it is deploying to address equity concerns.
We at YPN firmly believe that, as more children complete Junior High School, Senior High School education has received added attention from previous governments, and with the expansion of secondary education through the Free SHS programme, new challenges are emerging, such as mobilising the resources to fund additional infrastructure and teachers.
We are convinced that, in pursuit of the UN SDG 4 on education, and independent of the requirements of quality, a far-reaching access to senior secondary education is foundational to equity in education and provides future adults with the skills to live and adapt in a rapidly changing society.
Last, but not least, we expect government to aggressively pursue the quality ingredient for secondary education concurrently as it has promised. We are certain that, this will adequately and effectively prepare Ghana’s adolescents who are going to become our future leaders, managers and professionals to face the ever uncertain future.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
