It’s too early to judge - Catholic Bishop tells critics of free SHS policy
The Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, has asked critics of the government’s Free senior high school (SHS) policy to hold on with their concerns until the initiative is fully rolled out.
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He said since the project would come off next month, September 2017, it would not be prudent at this stage to pass judgement on it in terms of its impact on education.
Delivering a lecture on the theme: “Investing in Quality Education for National Development,” as part of the 65th anniversary celebration of the Bishop Herman College, Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu, said critics of the policy would be in a better position to appraise it after its implementation.
Skeptics
“I think it will be good to reserve all judgements on it until it has been implemented for a year or more. We will then be in the position to pass judgement on it on the basis of concrete and factual data,” Rev. Osei-Bonsu pleaded.
A cross section of the citizenry, including a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, have expressed reservations about the successful implementation of the policy because they claimed the government did not have the financial muscle to absorb all the cost associated with the policy.
The government has, however, hit back insisting the policy will take off without any glitches.
Examination malpractices
On examination malpractices, Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu, in the interest of quality education, implored the heads of schools to help end the menace of examination malpractices.
“We cannot speak of quality education if teachers are receiving money from students whom they help to answer questions in the examination hall,” he said.
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He further called for the strengthening of the supervision and counselling units in the country’s educational institutions to enhance quality education.
The clergyman advised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to put in place stringent measures to prevent the leakage of examination questions.
Role of parents and students
Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu equally urged parents to compliment the efforts of teachers by instilling discipline in their children at home.
He said, “the co-operation that must exist between schools and the parents is crucial to education. Every school should initiate meetings and other programmes which will make the parents more conscious of their role and help to establish a partnership.”
Teachers
While pleading with lecturers to show dedication to duty and desist from selling photocopied notes to students, Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu called for ongoing professional development programmes for teachers to promote quality education in the country.
Touching on the working conditions of teachers, Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu, urged the government to improve working conditions of teachers stressing that, “the condition of infrastructure, availability of textbooks and learning materials and class sizes all influence the teacher’s experience as an educator.”
Infrastructure and curriculum
Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu deplored the nature of school infrastructure in rural communities and prayed the government to step in to overhaul the infrastructural base to provide a conducive and safe learning environment for teachers and students.
On the issue of curriculum and quality education, he advocated the creation of a curriculum based on the needs of the country saying “the topics in the curriculum should be based on the needs of the people.”
Invest in education
Most Rev. Osei-Bonsu urged the government to invest heavily in education if it wanted the country to develop effectively.
“It is my contention that if we want our country Ghana to achieve the type of national development that we can all be proud of, we need to invest heavily in education in terms of human and material resources in order to positively transform the destiny of our dear country Ghana,” Rev. Osei-Bonsu added.