The Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, has, according to various media accounts, advised the Grade ‘A’ Senior High Schools (SHS) in the country to learn to accept students with low grades and help them develop into good materials capable of passing the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, who was speaking at the launch of the 60th Anniversary celebration of the University of Cape in Cape Coast over the weekend, contended that the most accurate means of determining how good these schools were was to take some of these students with low grades. Since the publication of the request, divergent views have been expressed, with some condemning the Minister for making such a statement.
Though The Chronicle supports the stance of the Minister, we do not think it will be easy for these elite schools to adopt the proposal. Because of competition and bragging right of being called elite school, most of our schools, especially the private basic ones, do not compromise on quality. Most of these private schools see the good performances of their students as a bait to lure parents to send their children to enrol in their school.
But, at the SHS level, the bragging right of being the best school takes over from the commercially-induced policies at the basic schools. It is an undeniable fact that the Cape Coast schools, Achimota, Aquinas, Prempeh, Aburi Girls, and Legon PRESEC among a host of others are in serious competition as to which schools are the best SHSs in Ghana. In view of this, they have, since time immemorial, not compromised on quality.
If we are to look at the human rights provisions in the 1992 Constitution and insist that the elite schools should admit students with low grades, we will, at the same time, be denying the right of those who duly qualify on merit for admission into these schools. Even at the university level, we do not look at students with low grades. The authorities admit only students who meet the cut-off point. In our view, therefore, forcing these Grade ‘A’ schools to admit some of the students with low grades should not be countenanced.
We believe the status quo must be maintained to serve as a motivator to all students desirous of gaining admission into these elite schools to study hard at the basic level. What the Minister must do is to set up a committee to study why despite the availability of qualified teachers, public basic schools are not performing well, and gaining admissions into the Adisadels, Mfantsipims, Wesley Girls, St Augustines, Achimotas and others when compared with their counterparts from the private schools.
The report that the committee will present to him at the end of the day, should inform the kind of policies his administration will adopt as a long term measure to address this obvious inequality gap he is complaining about. It is our contention that students who get low grades have problems with the way the foundation of their education was constructed. This is the reason why the government must pay special attention to the public schools on how they mould these students at the foundation level.
But, our above opinion notwithstanding, we still think the Minister has made a strong case and must be listened to. The Chronicle is aware that some of our public universities have a quota system for students coming from the under privileged communities. We can replicate this at the SHS level by encouraging the Grade ‘A’ schools to admit some of the low grade students to see if their academic performance will improve. It should, however, not be a wholesale policy, which, in our opinion, will destroy competition and subsequently lower the standards of non-tertiary education in the country.
