Provide public schools with printers & consumables for end-of-term exams – GES told

The caution from the Ghana Education Service directing all schools to stop collecting examination fees has come again after many schools had already taken proactive steps toward assessing students through end-of-term examinations. The reality is that  all public schools charge exam fees.

There is nearly everything wrong with the directive, unless the GES does not want teachers and head teachers to be innovative and proactive in solving problems within their schools.  The GES has directed that the “Internal Assessment Score (IAS)” which comprises Homework, Class Tests, Group Work, and Project Work should be used in assessing students at the end of each term.

However, we all know the benefits of students revising their lessons for the term to take a test after that and to be graded. The GES may come out with such policies, but the various PTAs may also decide to contribute to the end-of-term examinations through their self-help project.

Provide public schools with printers & consumables for end-of-term exam

Instead of giving such directives to teachers, it would be prudent, proactive, and innovative on the part of the GES to either procure multipurpose printers/ photocopier machines for each district as well as consumables such as papers and toner cartridges for districts to help schools set and run end of term examinations in each district. This way, teachers and head teachers who want the best from their learners will not ask parents to pay for end-of-term examinations. There are many private schools that run their own end-of-term examination papers in their respective schools. Why can’t we do the same in public schools?

Apart from the above, the government can also enter into an agreement with small publishing houses in each district or region to print and supply examination materials for schools at no cost to parents and pupils for each end-of-term examination. If the government is reluctant to finance end-of-term examinations, other key stakeholders will surely find ways to solve the problem.

One of the above if thought through and implemented will go a long way to improve the assessment of learners at the end of the term. The indirect implication of the current directive by the GES is that teachers are being asked to use their homework, etc., or set and administer examination questions on the board.

Finally, philanthropists and education-related NGOs in the various regions or districts, as well as churches, can also help these schools to conduct such examinations, especially where the school in question was established by the church.

As the Vice President continues to champion digitalization, and the GES has bought into the need to supply teachers with laptops, among others, it is important that the no examination policy of the GES is given a second look.

While the policy came into being with the introduction of the 2019 curriculum, it has become clear that the no exam in public basic schools has become very unpopular among teachers.

It sounds very strange for a government that experts teachers to perform well just as their students and pupils, to kick against the end-of-term assessment of learners when at the same time private schools go ahead to assess their candidates while operating with the same curriculum.

The Ghana Education Service is becoming a malfunctioning government institution in education as it continues to complain and give directives on nearly every matter without taking concrete steps toward solving the problems.

READ: All public schools charge exam fees: GES not on the ground

If the government cannot finance end-of-term examinations, it must eat a humble pie and allow PTAs to operate and pay for their ward’s end-of-term examinations.

The resistance by schools this year and the disregard for the three-year-old no collecting of unapproved fees for end-of-term examinations and other activities within the school certain must send a signal to the GES and the government that, our public school teachers and head teachers are tired of working with decisions that look seem backward.

If learners in private schools from KG to JHS 3 write the end-of-term examination and NaSIA, GES and MoE have not stopped them, there is nothing wrong with public schools organizing internal end-of-term examinations.

Source: Wisdom Hammond |Educator and Freelancer