Some parents in the Brong Ahafo Region have been accused of altering the admission letters of their wards into Senior High Schools in a move to get them into boarding.
In an interview with Citi News, the Assistant Headmaster In-Charge of Academics at the Sunyani Senior High, Micheal Osei Banso, said some parents deliberately altered the admission letters but were found out and nearly arrested.
According to him, one of such parents was nearly arrested by the police for forging the accommodation status of their ward.
He said the parents realized the school authorities were serious about the threat to arrest them, they absconded with their wards.
“Some parents whose wards have been given day status want to get boarding status and when they come and plead with us, we tell them that the system is done from Accra, and there is next to nothing we can do about it. They go back and edit the placement form and change the day status to boarding status then we find out from our records that the boarding status has been changed. Yesterday [Monday], we nearly invited the police to come and arrest one of the parents, when he realized that we were serious he ran away.”
The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, Peter Attafuah, however admitted that it was more difficult to change the accommodation status for a newly admitted student due the strenuous processes involved.
He called on parents with genuine concerns about the boarding status of their wards to officially submit a request to the Accra office of the Ministry of Education for the appropriate steps to be taken.
“Of course, if somebody is a boarder and wants to change to day that one is easy and can be done here, but if the person wants to change from a day status to a boarding status that one is above them. So what they need to do is to compile the names and seek approval from Accra.”
Double track system begins
The implementation of the double track system in some 400 Senior High Schools in Ghana commenced today, Tuesday, September 11, 2018.
The new system, which was created due to an increase in enrollment is expected to create space to accommodate more students, reduce class size, increase contact hours and increase the number of holidays.
The government adopted the double-track system to cater for increased enrollment under its flagship free Senior High School programme, due to a deficit in infrastructure.
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa in a Citi News interview said they are ready to ensure the success of the double track system.
“We are expecting first-year students who are on the green track and first years who are on the single track to be joining them from tomorrow onward. School re-opens for green track and single track on September 11, 2018,” he added.
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By: Micheal Mfum /citinewsroom.com/Ghana
