A renowned academic, Professor Francis Amedahe, has reiterated the call on government to strengthen the basic level of education so as to adequately prepare students going to secondary school to be adequately prepared for the challenges at the senior high school level.
Speaking at Keta Secondary School (Ketascho)’s fifth Founders’ Day lecture series held in Accra, he said government has to do a lot more to ensure that pupils from the basic schools entering the senior high school are academically equipped to face the challenges posed by the senior secondary school education.
This year’s celebration was held under the theme: Secondary School Education in Ghana: The Achievements, Challenges and the Way Forward’ at the British Council Hall in Accra last week.
Continuing, he called on government to take a second look at its directive through the Ghana Education Service, GES, which enjoined parents of students in public secondary schools not to pay parents and teachers’ dues which has helped these schools to solve some immediate problems without recourse to government.
Professor Amedahe, a former dean, Faculty of Education, University of Cape Coast added that the importance of secondary school education can be assessed by the progress the nation has made in diverse ways through the system which is the bridge between basic and tertiary education.
He iterated that successive governments have also acknowledged the importance of secondary school education and has consistently allocated at least eight per cent of annual gross domestic product, GDP, for education, far above the UNESCO-suggested four percent GDP towards funding it.
Professor Amedahe suggested ways that government can restructure the system which will enable it concentrate on her core mandate of provision of school infrastructure including furniture, computers, accessories and teachers.
President of the Ketascho Past Students’ Association and also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, Mr. Asiwome Agbenyega, in his welcome address, said reasons for the institution of the lecture series was to expand the discussion on education so that parents, old students’ associations and other stakeholders can make their voices heard on improving education in Ghana.
Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Modestus Fosu, acting Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, GIJ, Accra, also expressed the importance of education in nation building and urged all to join in the effort to provide quality education for all citizens.
