6-year secondary education is not a new policy – Education Minister

The Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has said that the 6-year secondary education policy is not new.

According to him, the policy has been in existence since the 1990s.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ Upfront on Wednesday, the Minister said, “when we talk about 6-year secondary education, it is not a new policy. Ghana has always had, since 1997, a 6-year secondary.”

“We used to have seven years of secondary education at the ‘A-Levels’,” he noted.

Dr. Adutwum suggested that “it is the organisation of the education system that has to be tweaked.”
“When we talk about the President’s vision for transformation, he wants to strengthen the lower secondary, ensure it has similar facilities and support as high schools, even though it is community-based.

“So if you look at the new schools that we are looking at, the lower secondary, we are going to have schools that have libraries, that has biology, chemistry labs but they are junior high schools, strengthen that, give them three years of quality secondary education, add it to the upper secondary or senior high, then you have 6-year quality secondary education,” he added.

He noted that the reason Nigerians excel in education is that “they’ve co-located the JHS on the same campuses as high schools. Most of them under the same leadership, taught under the same teachers.”

He added that the Nigerians therefore have quality 6-year secondary education which contributes to the improved results.Dr. Adutwum also praised the introduction of the Free Senior High School (FSHS). According to him, since the introduction of the policy, many successes have been chalked in the education sector.