Govt must scrutinise admission capacity data of SHSs – Eduwatch

Education Think Tank, Africa Education Watch wants data submitted by management of Senior High Schools on their capacity to admit students, to be scrutinized.

His comment follows the circulation of a video where students of the Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, have turned their toilet facilities into sleeping areas.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has indicated that the school has the capacity to admit the number of students it currently has.

GES has subsequently directed the head teacher of the school to step aside to allow for investigations.

Reacting to the development, the Executive Director for Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare said data available to the Ministry of Education may have some inconsistencies.

“It beats my mind when we see congestion of this nature when indeed we have 3,000 more vacancies in our SHSs than we need. That is why I’m happy that the GES activated swiftly and instituted an investigation into the matter. I believe that we need to focus on rationalising the data available at the Ministry of Education and GES in Accra and the situation on the ground. For example, a Computerised School placement System only places a student in a boarding house in GHANASCO, based on the number of beds the school declared”.

“If we are going strictly by how admissions are done through the Computerised School Placement, it should be impossible for any student to get to the school and not have a bed. I have a feeling that there’s a significant difference between the data available at GES and the situation in the school,” Mr. Asare said.

He added that the report of an assessment of the data in question should be made public to help government address the issue.

“We move to the schools and find out if the schools are actually admitting those who were placed by the computer. Is the school admitting more boarding students or is the school converting day admission to boarding, we find out what really is the situation and get to know a fair idea about the gap between the data submitted to Accra and situation analysis on the ground in the school”.

“My fear is that the report will not be made public, it will be kept as secret and stakeholders will not have the opportunity to appreciate what the real issues are and what measures the GES and the ministry will put in place to forestall future occurrences. I hope I may be put to wrong,” Executive Director of Education Think Tank, Africa Education Watch stated.

The Ghana Education Service has launched an investigation into a viral video showing students of Ghana Senior High School in Tamale using toilet cubicles as dormitories.

The video has caused outrage on social media and raised concerns about the safety and well-being of the students.