President John Mahama has mounted a spirited defense for the current three-year duration of Senior High school education following calls by some stakeholders for a return to the four-year Senior High School system.
READ ALSO: 2016 WASSCE
His comments follow the release of the 2016 WASSCE results, which many have described as poor.
The situation has prompted calls by some sections of Ghanaians for a return to the four-year duration of Senior high education.
READ ALSO: 2016 WASSCE
The four-year senior high school programme began in 2007 under the former President John Kufuor’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
The system, however, lasted three academic years as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) assumed power in 2009 and reverted to the three-year system.
READ ALSO: Poor WASCCE Results
The flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Addo has recently said he is saddened by this year’s WASSCE results.
However, president John Mahama in a tweet on Friday said: “The call for a return to 4yr SHS is uncalled for. 3yrs is doing far better as evidenced in the graph.”
The president also provided a graph to back his claims that the 3-year system is doing better than the 4-year system of education.
Background
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Tuesday released provisional results for the 2016 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
At least 598 candidates who sat in the 2016 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) had their “entire results cancelled,” a statement signed by Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, said.
The statement indicated that 1,576 candidates had their subject results cancelled while some 13 candidates who had their entire results cancelled have also been “barred from taking any of the Council’s examinations for two years mainly for impersonation during the examination”.
WAEC indicated that a total of 125,065 students obtained A1 to C6 in English Language, which is 53.19%, 59,725 (25.40%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 46,595 (19.82%) had F9.
The statement said for Mathematics, 77,108 (32.83%) obtained A1-C6; 65,007 (27.68%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 89,477 (38.10%) had F9.
About 113,933 students obtained A1-C6 in Integrated Science which is 48.48%, 75,938 (32.32%) obtained D7-E8 whilst 42,519 (18.09%) had F9, WAEC added.