Four Or Three Years In SHS Controversy Back Again

The duration of the Secondary level education has always been tossed between three and four years depending on which political party was in power. It all started few years back when the New Patriotic Party(NPP) administration under former President John Agyekum Kufour, changed it from its previous three years to four years.

However, the National Democratic Congress(NDC) under the Late President John Evans Atta Mills did not fail expectations and reversed the duration to three years as stated in their manifesto after two batches of forms three and four students sat for the 2013/2014 West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination(WASSCE).

The NDC government that took over the helm of affairs after Professor Mills, the John Mahama-led administration, maintained this duration at three years.

However, a current revelation from the camp of President Nana Akufo- Addo led government says, it is considering a possible change in the duration of the Senior High School(SHS) from three years back to four years again.

The Minister of Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour, has said the government is currently assessing the effectiveness of the current three-year duration and will soon make a firm decision.

“The time lost, we have to make it up. That is the firsts thing that we are trying to do now, and based on that, we can now use the analysis that they do offer that time, to see what the public thinks and to decide on whether we move for three years or four years”. This comment was made by Professor Baffour Gyan during the launch of the Ghana Social Development Outlook 2016 at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research.

” If it is found out the four years is better than three years in training our children, then money should not be the basis[for] denying them that four years…It is not only access, but it also includes quality, and if it is four years that will give them quality and that is what people want, so be it,” The Minister of Planing further explained.

This has once again led to debates among Ghanaians with some still holding onto their views that the duration didn’t really matter but the resources and infrastructure needed by these students to learn, whiles others too are maintaining that the four years is good enough since it would give ample time for the students to complete all their syllabus. So which one are you for. Three Or four Years?