Open Letter to President Akuffo-Addo and Education Minister I

Dear President and Minister,

I write to you as an advocate for quality education and as someone who agrees with your laudable motives for improving education in the country, especially basic and secondary levels. Your changes are occurring in difficult times. If Charles Dickens were here, he would definitely call our days Hard Times, because now most teachers see money, not human potential. Many are clueless that the products they fail to nurture pose the biggest threat to society. Amidst such chaos, your Government has taken the courageous stand to fund secondary education, increase access to education, rid the system of exploitative practices.

Parents, guardians, all pragmatic Ghanaians appreciate the services being provided for free: “Admission, feeding and boarding, tuition, textbooks, library, science resource centre, computer laboratory, examination, one meal for day students. Fact: This country has enough for everyone’s needs; it does not have enough for everybody’s greed or extravagance. With frugal use of tax payers’ money, the policy can not only be sustained amidst any challenges, but it can also be improved.

Dear President, I share your sentiment wholly that America’s decision to completely fund secondary education a century ago has brought the nation to its current destination of a beacon of educational excellence and quality lifestyle. Additionally, when the Russians pioneered space exploration, President Kennedy acknowledged that America was operating a moribund school curriculum and rapidly worked out a dynamic science curriculum that responded to changing times. Even so, a century ago, America did not have the benefit of Information Technology (IT). Currently, that is an ace up Ghana’s sleeve. The hassles that characterised admission in 2017 need not be repeated. IT could smoothen the processes, come September 2018.

In computerised learning systems, one can conveniently access information and services online. In Ghana, however, when examination results are released by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), it means parents/guardians must buy a scratch card for a code with which to access and download results from WAEC website. That should have changed in 2017, Sirs. But it did not; therefore, the GES ought to improve its computer system in order to remove the bottlenecks for parents and guardians. Utilize the Internet.

Effective this September, immediately WAEC announces its results, parents and candidates should be able to access examination results from its website or a telephone hotline, using candidate’s numbers, from the comfort of their homes. Within the first week, WAEC should offload the entire results onto the GES database for immediate activation and dissemination. By the second week, parents and candidates should be accessing the admission lists from the website.

The essence of computerization ought to be the convenience of online access of information and expedited services. That has not been the culture of GES computerisation system. In 2016, following the announcement of release, parents thronged school campuses, some travelling two or three regions, only to be told that the GES could not abide by its schedule, so they had to wait a day or two. Those who primed themselves for return trips found themselves in a fix. Even though the scenario was different in 2017, it could be further improved upon. There has been a precedent.

In the era of Common Entrance Examination, WAEC simultaneously posted master results to centres in each region and lists of students to their respective choices, names of unsuccessful candidates excluded. Candidates who passed could tell from their marks whether they would be admitted by their first or second choice. Schools readily prepared and mailed admission letters and prospectuses to candidates and parents. The examinations were written in March/April; by July ending, the outcomes had reached candidates and parents. That was the manual age. Contrarily, this is the electronic age, so numbers notwithstanding, accessing WASSCE results should be expedited.

Only a dynamic IT system could smoothen high school admission processes. The GES website must have a link for admission, so that candidates can ascertain which of their four choices they have secured. The same site must have a link for prospectus which would be accessed and downloaded by parents. Not only would the link save parents multiple trips to the schools, but it would render the processes transparent. Such transparency would pre-empt the situation where schools can add superfluous items that compel parents to pay money they should not, thereby, negating Government’s efforts to provide free secondary education. Since PTA levy is mandatory, MoE/GES could ensure that the schools do not utilise that to replicate illegitimate payments.

Educational institutions elsewhere which handle larger numbers than our BECE and SHS candidates manage their examination systems electronically, so Ghana can do same. But it will not be done through the communication service providers. We have seen the chaos they can cause. The Ministry should explore the technical skills of the electronic team that collated and released accurate election results locally and internationally within a few hours of closing elections in December 2016. That team should electronically sanitize MoE/GES computer system and service delivery by giving it a high capacity, as well as a most accessible path in order to close avenues for exploitation during admission. Without a super IT intervention, Sirs, unscrupulous elements will continuously explore innovative means to financially exploit parents/guardians.

The average intrepid Ghanaian parent cannot be relied upon to protest any such exploitation, because they are terrified of retaliatory measures by school figures. Parents will overcompensate by kowtowing to rather than exposing unprofessional or unethical practices by any of the school authorities. These very parents also constitute the electorate, President and Minister, so they will acquiesce and later complain that the Government has failed to provide free secondary education. Thus, sterilising the system electronically will be a win-win situation for all stakeholders. However, once admission is completed, learning occurs. Quality content deserves its own platform. I address that in my next letter, Sirs.