Naana Opoku-Agyemang shoots down calls for ‘O’ & ‘A’ level system

She called for caution on the part of government and stakeholders in education in considerations for another educational system.Speaking on citi fm , the former Education Minister said although the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system was of a high standard, it was selective.

“Yes, the system we have is not perfect, no system is perfect. The ‘O’ and ‘A’ level [system] was not perfect, so we can grow what we have and make it strong. If we are talking about bringing the old system back, we have the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system that was very selective and I think we can all return to the statistics. How many children were in primary school then? How many got the chance to write the common entrance? How about the so many of our own children who never had the change at the ‘O’ level? We should speak for them. …If we bring a system that widens the net, and brings many more people on board, it is useful for us,” she said.

She added that, a study of the trends in the current educational system, showed a number of challenges that needed to be addressed to improve the standard. She mentioned that the current system had challenges such as access, equity, and relevance which needs to be tackled.

“Yes, the standards have fallen, we’ve said that often, but why are we not committed to work on this so we know where the specific issues are and then target our interventions?” Naana Opoku Agyemang quizzed.

The Charismatic Bishops’ Conference in a communiqué issued earlier this week, called on the government to reintroduce the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level educational system which according to them, will restore the integrity of formal education in Ghana.

It said the country had been subjected to an inferior form of education through the JHS and SHS for many years.”