Editorial (Daily Searchlight of Wednesday, 5th October 2022)
Management of the Mfantsiman Girls’ Senior High School (SHS) at Saltpond in the Central region has appealed for the construction of new dormitories and a classroom block to mitigate the challenge of overcrowding in the school.
Headmistress of the school, Mrs Phyllis Arthur-Simpson during the 62nd Speech and Prize-giving Day held over the weekend said, “The school which started in 1960 with 70 students now has an enrolment of over 5000.”
This represents 7,042% increase in student population within the 62 year period, woefully unmatched by the slow infrastructure provision.
The school has teaching staff strength of 146 and 92 non-teaching staff.
The Daily Searchlight is of the opinion that the statement coming from Nfantsiman is a sign of the fact that Ghana does need to do a comprehensive rethink of its educational policy as far as paying for second-cycle education is concerned.
First, we believe that it is not healthy to locate as many as five thousand children in one educational facility, no matter how good it is. The school should have a capacity in terms of intake, which should be adhered to.
Secondly, there should have been comparative studies done to establish schools of similar vintage to take up the slack.
Third, and most importantly, we believe the lack of space and facilities is purely a matter of financial capacity. If Ghana had the funds, we would have put up the facilities.
A case like Nfantsiman, where the government is picking up the tab for the education of five thousand children at a go, should indicate all the huge amounts of money being poured into the free senior high school policy, and the critical need for the nation to do a rethink on this policy.
We continue to advocate that parents be allowed to have a greater say and ownership in secondary education, by being allowed to pay for the service.
Again, Ghana should think about broadening the ‘day and community secondary school’ concept, so that more children can stay home and attend secondary school.
We believe that by such policies, the government would make the savings to pay for critical infrastructure like that needed at Nfantsiman.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight of Wednesday, 5th October, 2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and PDF versions are available for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).
