The headline of this publication “SHS Diploma that can’t secure jobs; Social Media Users Mock MoE over New Education Policy” sums up the reactions of Ghanaians who have seen what is supposed to be Ghana’s new education policy
Ghanaians have taken a swipe at the Ministry of Education over its new controversial education curriculum under which SHS graduates will be awarded Diploma certificates.
The yet-to-be-implemented policy has got Social Media users asking questions and seeking to find out the reasons behind the decision. For many, the question on their minds is whether the SHS Diploma would lead to easy access to jobs.
Ghanaians have reacted to the Diploma Certificate to be awarded SHS graduates under the new education policy and are wondering if the knowledge obtained at that level merits a Diploma.
Again, the question is whether the new policy will help graduates acquire employable skills or it will be the old story of book knowledge, chew and poor-pass and forget approach.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) knows what it intends to do, but the communication of the internal workings of the policy needs to be broken down and explained well to the Ghanaian people.
Per the information available, students who get to the final year will sit for a university entrance examination and will be awarded a new Diploma certificate under the new policy.
According to the Policy document which has flooded social media, it is only when students get promoted to SHS2, that they will start studying elective subjects and career-related programme under Vocational, Technical, and High School Diploma Programmes such as Science, Business, or Arts.
The awarding of a Diploma upon completion of SHS would not be a bad idea if it is awarded to those who opt for the Vocational and Technical path since they would have acquired employable skills but for those who opt for the Senior High School Porgrammes awarding them a Diploma may look too strange and a mix-match
The new policy will also cancel the current BECE and WASSCE, which will be replaced by the Placement Examination and the University Entrance Exam respective.
These new examinations have also seen social media going nuts. Have you seen BECE to be cancelled, University Entrance Exam to replace WASSCE. Check it out for the full reaction of Ghanaians.
Some commentators have described this policy as an avenue to mess up the education system.
“So what will be the certificate for those who can’t make it to the universities? And with the entrance exams, it will create employment with huge salaries for some people because people will have to pay in order to pass. So the rich will get admission whiles the poor intelligent people will always fail.” is one of the comments on the new policy by a Ghanaian.
Other comments related to this are as follows…
So will each university organize its own exams or WAEC will organize them???
What will Nursing Training colleges depend on??? Different entrance exams???
So will an entrance exam for Legon qualify me to attend Harvard or Oxford??
“The new curriculum is good. But the problem here is our country’s educational infrastructure is not adequate to accommodate most of the methodologies needed to execute the curriculum properly, especially in rural areas. If we don’t take care our educational systems will become useless by and by. I wish our governments will agree on at least a ten-year plan to improve our educational infrastructure then we can be certain of employing such an expensive curriculum. The curriculum is good, but our education system might crash if we embark on it with the current infrastructure. My opinion”“Look look look all this is not necessary. Just make our education practical. The government should stock the labs with modern instruments. We have a very good theoretical background. All we need is the practicals. Stop the semantics”