Rank senior high schools by courses
I write to comment on the rankings of the 2013 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) compiled by the Statistics, Research, Information, Management and Public Relations (SRIMPR) Division of the Ministry of Education.
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The ministry has done a good job in doing such an exercise, which, I believe, will change the mindset of many people towards some schools that are found in some forgotten corners in Ghana. It is now clear that when a level playing field is given to all schools in terms of buildings and academic materials, majority of the schools will perform well and that could ease the pressure on schools in the cities when it comes to admissions to senior high schools.
However, there are gaps in the analysis which must be addressed.
First, the issue of ranking schools with Technical and Vocational background as against the Sciences and the Business schools must be looked into.
For instance, Kade Day Senior High School, which was fifth in the ranking and the Maranatha Business S.H.S, which was eighth were both sampled with the other schools with Science and Business bias, making it difficult in correlating items that are not associated.
Secondly, the numbers that were presented by the schools would also have to be stratified proportionally for the schools with the greater number of presented candidates to benefit from their numbers - because a school with 1,000 candidates will have to be compared with a school with the same number, but not schools with hundreds and tens.
I believe that it would be better for the Ministry of Education to rank the schools according to their courses in the Sciences, Business, Technical and Vocational, Agriculture, General Arts, as well as Visual Arts. Such a ranking will shift the attention from the school authorities to the students and their courses in the various schools for different options to be opened for competition, rather than a single competition among the individual schools.
Mr Martin Owusu Ansah, Adventist Senior High School, Box B 219, Bantama-Kumasi. Email : [email protected]
