The Ghana Education Service (GES) Director-General, Prof Opoku-Amankwa has indicated that it regrets the delay in releasing the 2022 academic calendar. However, it has promised to make public very soon a stable, definite academic calendar that looks beyond 2022, 2023, 2024.
“Additionally, the calendar that we are drawing also looks beyond 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to see how we can gradually come back to the school calendar year, which ends in June/July and starts in September/October,” Prof Opoku-Amankwa explained.
Academic calendars have become scare commodities to educators, students, and the public since 2019, and the introduction of the Free SHS gave birth to the double-track system in Senior High Schools. The uncertainty of the academic calendar for the pre-tertiary schools in recent times has made it virtually impossible for students, parents, and teachers to tell when they will be in school and for how long.
According to the Director-General of GES, his outfit is running the final draft by heads of schools and other stakeholders for their input.
Prof Opoku-Amankwa added that since the government has included the TVET schools in the Free SHS policy, it was necessary for the team working on the academic calendar to reconcile and have a workable calendar that will take into consideration TVET schools.
The new calendar when released will also ensure the calendar that takes into consideration the lost time as a result of Covid-19 so that students can catch up.
READ: Dangers of not releasing the 2022 Academic Calendar for Pre-Tertiary Schools on time
Organizational stakeholders including Foundation for Generational Thinkers (FOGET) and African Education Watch have indicated the GES has not been helpful in ensuring smooth takeoff of the 2022 academic year. The leader of (FOGET) has described the current situation as frustrating adding that the smooth take of the academic year will be in danger.
The GES has promised the 2022 academic calendar will be out soon per the information from the Ghana Education Service (GES) Director-General. The public is looking forward to this as SHS students (Gold, Green, Single track s) in years two and three wait stressed up.