BECE 2023: Educationist Appeals To GES To Reconsider Reporting Date For SHS Form One Students

• An educationist has expressed unhappiness over the decision by the GES for first-year SHS students to report to school on December 4, 2023
• Daniel Fenyi lamented that the decision does not give parents ample time to prepare, considering when the SHS placements for JHS graduates were released
• He entreated the GES to allow the form one students to report to school in January 2024

Mr Daniel Fenyi, an educationist, has expressed concern over the insistence by the Ghana Education Service for first-year SHS students to report to school on Monday, December 4, 2023.

Speaking in an interview with YEN.com.gh, Mr Fenyi said the decision is in bad taste, especially considering how it will negatively impact parents of these students.

Delving into details, he explained that senior high school placements for junior high school graduates were recently released, so it was only proper that parents be given ample time to provide whatever their children will need to have a comfortable stay in school.

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Another concern he raised was the short period these students would spend in school before they are told to return home for vacation.

"Parents have just three or four days to purchase everything on the prospectus and send their kids away only for them to spend just two weeks on campus and return home again. We know the first week on campus is usually for familiarisation.

Therefore, technically, our children will have only one week of academic work, if any. This arrangement doesn't sit well in logic. Why put parents under intense financial pressure only for the children to have just one week of academic work and return home?

Imagine the many kids who'll travel very long distances across the country only to return in a few days. The risk on their lives and waste of money on expensive fares."

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Mr Fenyi appealed to GES to reconsider its decision and allow the first-year students to report to school in January 2024.

He also entreated the GES to review the academic calendar.

"Let our children go to school in January, when parents would have had ample time to prepare financially, procure most items on the prospectus, and the kids themselves would have prepared mentally for the onerous task of high school education.

Even you Ghana Education Service as a service would have been able to solve all outstanding issues relative to the placement by then"

"The Teacher Unions have already written to you as Teachers. I am also writing to you as a Parent. We collaboratively emphasize that the current arrangement doesn't work for any of the stakeholders." he added.

Ministry maintains reporting date for SHS form one students

Earlier YEN.com.gh reported that the Education Ministry is maintaining the reopening date for new senior high school students, which is on December 4, 2023, despite some complaints.

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Kwasi Kwarteng, the spokesperson for the ministry, said the academic calendar was released weeks ago to allow parents to prepare ahead of time.

“If you look at the academic calendar, it had already been within the public space for some time now and the expectation was that parents, guardians, and even students prepared ahead of time,” he said

Source: YEN.com.gh