Fresh students who are preparing to go to Senior High School and their parents across the country have been caught up in a state of confusion and anxiety following a directive by the Ghana Education Service for fresh students to report to school on Monday, December 4, 2023.
The decision of the Ghana Education Service comes few days after it released the Computerized Schools Selection Placement for junior high school students who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination from Monday, August 7th, 2023 to Friday, August 11th, 2023.
It is important to note that the sudden reopening of school for fresh students may lead to unexpected financial strain on parents particularly under the current economic conditions in the country as they may need to expedite purchases of school uniforms, textbooks, and other supplies, potentially impacting their budgets.
Again, fresh students may experience heightened anxiety due to the sudden start of the academic year as they are likely not going to get sufficient time to mentally prepare for the transition, leading to potential challenges in adjusting to the new school environment.
Moreover, it is important to emphasise that while most schools are likely to face administrative pressures in handling the influx of students and ensuring that necessary arrangements are in place, most fresh students may miss out on essential orientation activities that are typically conducted before the start of the academic year due to the sudden date of the school reopening.
Parliament Demands Revision Of Reopening Date For Fresh SHS Student
The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Honourable Alban Kingsford Sumani Bagbin has urged the Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei-Adutwum and the Ghana Education Service to reconsider its decision to reopen school for fresh students on December 4 2023.
Mr Bagbin responding to concerns from the Minority Caucus in Parliament on the possible challenges fresh students and their parents are likely to face due to the timeframe of the date for the school reopening admonished the Education Minister to ensure that the date is revised to the first week of January 2024.
The Speaker of Parliament thus directed the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei-Adutwum to appear before Parliament on Monday, December 4 2023 to provide further details to the house on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director at the Institute of Education Studies, Dr. Peter Anti-Partey, has also urged the Ghana Education Service to postpone the reopening to early next year for parents to adequately prepare.
According to Dr Anti-Partey the decision by the Ghana Education Service for fresh senior school students to report to school on December 4 2023 less than a week after the release of the Computerized School Selection Placement would create numerous challenges to both student and parent.
“Adjust it in such a way that everybody will be a little bit okay. I don’t know how they are going to do this because you cannot move it to the following week. If you move it to the following week, it means the students are about to spend about one week on campus. It does not help because some of them will be traveling so you go to school for one week and you come back home for Christmas. It does not help. So, I think that maybe the best option will be either to maintain this or move the reopening of the first years to early next year so that everybody would be prepared for that
Dr. Peter Anti-Partey
From the above, it is therefore instructive for the Ghana Education Service to revise its decision of reopening school for fresh student who will be attneding senior high school for the 2023/24 Academic Year as the decision create a lot of inconvenience for both parent and their wards.
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