A senior lecturer with the Geography department at the University of Ghana, Professor Martin Oteng Ababio has waded into the debate surrounding calls for a review of the Free SHS policy, noting that lecturers are overwhelmed and burdened.
This follows numerous calls by Civil Society Organizations and parents and guardians for a review of the policy to allow parents contribute their quota to improving the policy.
The Free SHS policy, which is the flagship programme of the governing New Patriotic Party, has remained a major talking point since its inception in September 2017 with Some student beneficiaries of Free SHS.
Flag bearer of the largest opposition NDC, John Dramani Mahama has pledged to review the policy in his first 100 days in office when given the nod to serve again as the president come December 7.
Speaking to the media on the back of this, Professor Oteng Ababio said a review of the policy will ensure not all SHS students end up at the university as some would be in the technical and vocational institutions.
He made this known during a street campaign by University of Ghana lecturers to whip up support for former President Mahama ahead of the upcoming polls on December 7th.
“So I’m very passionate about education. I concede that free SHS has helped, but it has spurred the doom of the whole educational system. The number of students that are getting into the university has increased tremendously.
“Lectures have not increased, the lecture halls have not increased, the residential halls have not increased. So we are compromising, and I’m a lecturer, we are compromising quality for quantity. And I say that today if you come to Legon, you enter a lecture hall, you find 600, 800 students in one room.
“That makes it very difficult to reach out to each and every one. How many essays can you mark a day? And how many essays can you give to your students? And that is challenging,” he bemoaned.
The professor said he was pleased the NDC had pledged to review it. As he commends the good works of the Free SHS policy by the current government.
Credit: 87solutions.blogspot.com
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