Education in Ghana has seen a lot of changes from successive governments and it seems like we don’t have a clear policy for our educational system. Though we are a developing country and policy advocacy are bound to happen but we should try to stick for any educational reform for a while before thinking of another
From 2011 to 2013 there was a policy that students in senior high schools as at then were made to complete four years but it seems not to hold because research conducted by Samuel Nii at faculty of education and entrepreneurship at Methodist University to determine which educational policy 4-years and 3-years system which was more advantageous to Ghana, the findings shows that the 4-years was more advantageous to Ghana but the 3-years policy also favour Ghana in terms of funding it. we switch back to the 3-years policy. Within that period we experience the to and forth movement of our educational system and is like any government that comes into power always want to experiment with our educational system.
Last three years we saw massive changes in our educational system from high school to a basic level. Where in high school there was a double-track policy that created a lot of controversies around it. We are developing as a country and we are not against any developmental changes that will benefit our children tomorrow. What we are advocating for is our leaders should always ensure that they plan well to ensure that the challenges in implementing educational policy are minimal.
Looking at how the basic level is in Ghana now the teachers do not have a clear cut direction as to where the educational system is running because of the introduction of the new curriculum.
Research conducted by Dominic Mensah on the free senior high school policy (FSHS) in Ghana recommends that government should not only sit in Accra make policies and push it down to the teachers and headteachers to implement it but rather involved these teachers in the planning stages of the educational reform to have them feel part of the reforms to ensure its success.
I can tell for a fact that just a few of these teachers in the basic level are conversant with this new curriculum which they are currently teaching our young ones. Our educational system is currently facing a lot of challenges because teachers are in their classrooms but being remote control by leaders in Accra.
Imagine a teacher in Zeibila being remote control by someone sitting in Accra how do you succeed in what you are teaching in that classroom. This is what is currently happening in classrooms across the country today.