The Ministry of Education has clarified media publications suggesting the government is planning to reduce university education to three years and upgrade Ghana’s education system to award Junior and Senior High School students Diploma certificates.
Mathew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister for Education according to earlier reports, said a new curriculum being considered for Junior High Schools in the country will see students completing with National Higher Diplomas while qualified SHS graduates will be awarded National Diplomas.
He bemoaned how Ghanaian SHS and JHS are forced to complete University before being eligible for employment in the country as their current certificates are irrelevant and explained that the upgrade will enable them gain employment after completion of their programmes.
He said these at the 2019 Danquah Institute Leadership lecture under the theme: “World Class Education and Imperative for the Next Generation of Leaders”.
He noted that such an upgrade for their qualification will make the graduates more relevant and not having to necessarily obtain University education to be qualified for employment in the country.
On the reduction of university education to three years, Mr Opoku Prempeh reportedly made known government’s plans to ensure the reduction in the duration for pursuing undergraduate degree programs from four years to three years.
“Everywhere in the world, undergrad is three years not four years, why should we spend four years doing undergrad? We will sit down with the university lecturers and start challenging them because Ghana is not an island,” the minister is quoted to have said.
But in his defence, the Ministry of Education says the Minister’s comments were misrepresented.
The Ministry, in a communiqué signed by its Communications Director Ekow Vincent Assafuah emphatically states that Mr. Opoku Prempeh did not say Junior High School leavers will be awarded National Diplomas.
“The Minister did not state that Junior High School graduates would be awarded a diploma. Indeed, given the government’s commitment to redefining basic education to include senior high school, in respect of which the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill is in Parliament, it is inconceivable that the Minister would suggest that junior high school graduates would be awarded diplomas or any other certification to enable them seek work,” the statement clarifies.
The Ministry further assured Ghanaians of its commitment to “engaging relevant stakeholders in its ongoing comprehensive reforms agenda”.
Read the statement below
By: Kekeli Kuatsenu/awakenewsonline.com