The Vice Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress has reiterated her party’s resolve to review the Free Senior High School policy implemented by the Akufo-Addo government.
Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang averred that the recent riots by students in the various Senior High School over examination rules is an indication that the policy in its current form has lapses thus making the need for a review necessary.
Defending Mahama’s call for a review of the policy, she argued that students had had cause to complain about the difficulty of examination questions in the past but had never resorted to the acts of indiscipline recently witnessed at the Senior High Schools.
She added that government should have found it necessary to review the policy rather than criticizing the NDC flagbearer’s intentions to have it reviewed.
While refuting claims that the former president intends to cancel the policy, she also reiterated the NDC’S promise to abolish the double-track system. She said just like a previous NDC government abolished the Shift System at the basic school levels, so would the next NDC government abolish the double-track system. She contends that it was never the anticipation of parents to have their wards in a double-track system.
“What has happened in our Senior High Schools calls for an urgent review. Students always complain that questions are difficulty but when did students behave this way because the questions were difficult? There is something that needs to be reviewed and we needed to review it yesterday. It needn’t wait for us (NDC). We would abolish the double-track system. I don’t think parents bargain for this so we need a review,” she said.
The NDC’s running mate who was speaking at an engagement with some young people in commemoration of International Youth Day in Accra also served notice that the NDC would review the Teacher Licensure Examination if it is elected in the upcoming elections. She further dispelled claims that the examination was instituted by the Mahama-led administration arguing it was instituted in 2008. She recounted that the NDC had intended to use it as a mode of promoting teachers when it assumed power in 2009.
“I heard somewhere that we started it (Teachers’ licensure examination). It in the education act (Act 773) which was passed in 2008 and president Mahama was no where near the presidency and I was nowhere near the ministry of education. We inherited it. Our plan was to use this licensure as a mode of promotion…… We never designed a sit-down exams for people to write three hours and then you tell me they’ve passed so they should go and teach. We don’t think that is the way to go,”
Prof. Agyemang also called on Ghanaians to uphold the value of decency and respect for each other’s integrity. She said the use of indecent language in public discourse does not augur well for the development of the country.
