A lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University, Dr. Solomon Fokuo has charged politicians to quit the unnecessary debate on Senior High School duration and rather find a solution to the high rate of unemployment in the country.
According to him, the importance of education is to make the person who has been educated to fit into the society.
“The long battle of education is all about the individual being able to fit into the society after education and fitting into the society means being employed and respected,” he said.
In a panel discussion on Otec FM’s Kejetia show hosted by Nana Kwabena Agyemang, Dr Fokuo stated that the structure of Ghana’s educational system since the time of Brigadier – General Sir Frederick Gorden Guggisberg to Ghana’s first President the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah, trained people to handle jobs existing jobs to be able to fit into that particular society.
He explained that during that period, people spent 27 good years in school after which there were jobs available for them to take so there was nothing like unemployed graduates.
”But now the educational structure is such that students spend only 22years before completing University,” he added
“The difference between the 27years and the 22years is 5years so looking at this what I can see is that if there are available jobs and the SHS is reversed to even 1year I don’t have a a problem but to have students complete school early is the reason a chunk of graduates remain unemployed because the economy is not expanding to take care of those who are completing,” he noted.
”That is where the politicians should focus and not about 2years, 5years, 3years of SHS education because as we speak now government has employed only less than 700,000 graduates in Ghana,” he stressed.
The minister of planning, hon Prof. Gyan Baffour earlier this week revealed that government is monitoring the current three year SHS system to inform a possible reversion from three to four years as part of plans to ensure quality education in the country.
The erstwhile John Kufour NPP administration introduced the 4 year senior school program in 2007 which was later reverted to the 3 years after the NDC took over in 2009.
Dr. Solomon Fokuo who is advocating for the 4years education duration at the senior high school level pointed out that the children are being rushed through to complete school but have nowhere to go afterwards.
“What kind of training are we giving to them, what courses are they offering, are they relevant to the contemporary times we find ourselves, is it about accountancy, is it about entrepreneurship we have to change our curriculum so that it will become relevant to everybody who will complete school to be able to fit into the society,” he stated.
He added that it is very dangerous for a person who has passed through a lot of training to remain jobless because he can easily become an armed robber and such people are difficult to arrest.
Source: otecfmghana.com/Kwaku Anane Jr.
