The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, says the junior high school (JHS) system lacks the desired quality to produce competitive students and graduates for the country.
He noted that the current JHS system does not favour ‘weak’ or underprivileged students, adding that there are no advanced facilities that build students for their career paths.
Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday, the Bosomtwe MP recounted that the current JHS education is not robust enough to prepare students for higher education, unlike the former middle system.
According to him, the country created “a monster [when] we removed what used to be middle school, which gave people from disadvantaged backgrounds opportunities to catch up with the rest” in 1987.
“I think the weakest link in the education system is the junior high school because others will go the junior high school and do the quality secondary work; if you meet those students at Wesley Girls, they are ahead of the curve, and they are going to do much better than you.”
“We borrowed a concept from the United States…three plus three but we decided that the first three [JHS] is not something that we’re going to be very concerned about. Something needs to be done about the week middle which happens to be the junior high school,” he said.
GhanaFeed.com