THE INJUSTICE, SYSTEMIC INEQUALITY, HYPOCRISY AND BLAME-SHIFTING IN THE GHANAIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: AN APPEAL FOR REVIEW

  

For years, Ghana’s educational system has suffered from structural injustice or systemic inequality imposed by leadership decisions. One major concern, which the above poem vividly highlights, is the categorisation of Senior High Schools (SHSs) and the biased placement of Junior High School (JHS) pupils into these schools.

Currently, SHSs in Ghana are put into three categories: A, B and C, with Category A being the highest and Category C being the lowest. When this policy was first introduced, some visionary citizens of Ghana including the leadership of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) raised legitimate concerns against it because of its inherent challenges, and suggested that it should be reviewed. The GNAT secretary, Mr. Thomas Tanko Musah, in particular, in an interview with City News argued that the ranking of the schools would create a negative impression in the minds of students and parents as some would think that some schools are good and others are bad. "If you classify one school as A, another as B, and another as C, it creates the impression that the C schools are not good, and I think we must do away with the grades A, B, C, and D categorisation,” he said.

Responding to the genuine concerns raised against the policy, the good people of Ghana were told that the ranking of the schools is based on infrastructure and not academic performance. However, the yearly placement of JHS graduates in the various SHSs tells a different story–it clearly shows that the ranking is primarily based on academic performance, not physical facilities as it was purported.

After the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the bright and top-performing pupils, who the PERSONA (SPEAKER) referred to as "live and thriving seedlings" in the poem, are normally placed in Category A and B schools whilst the weaker ones symbolised as the "weak and dead seedlings" are placed in Category C schools. Mostly, pupils placed in Category A schools are those who got aggregates between 6 and 15; those with aggregates ranging from 16 to 25 are placed in Category B schools while those with aggregates between 26 and 52 are usually placed in Category C schools.

The sad story is most of the pupils placed in Category C schools struggle with basic Literacy and Arithmetics. In fact, a good number of them are hardly able to write or spell their own names correctly talk less of constructing meaningful sentences or solving simple fractions and equations. Teachers in these schools, symbolised by the SPEAKER in the poem, work relentlessly to improve these learners, but often the academic foundation of the learners is so weak that even a miracle would not be able to change them.

What is even more worrying is that when schools are evaluated based on academic performance, heads and teachers in Category A and B schools are showered with praises, much like *the* *other* *peasants* in the poem who are "eulogized" for their bumper harvests. Heads and teachers in Category C schools, on the other hand, are blamed for their students’ poor performance–just like the PERSONA who is blamed for his "poor harvest" despite being given bad seedlings.

Though I cannot tell exactly what the headmasters go through when they are summoned by their superiors to explain  the poor academic performance of their schools, I imagine it is emotionally draining. Upon their return, many direct their frustration at their teachers, blaming them for issues that are far beyond their control.

These headmasters often issue query letters to heads of department, demanding explanations for the underperformance of their departments. In turn, the heads of department pass the blame onto the helpless teachers, who are left with no one else to shift the blame to–not even the weak students who, like the dormant seeds in the poem, fail to respond to revival treatments.

The simple question I would like to ask is: Why is the truth being covered;  why the blame-shifting; is it that the root cause of the poor performance of the Category C schools is not known? I am sure the answer is glaringly obvious.  It simply follows the law of computing: “Quality in, quality out; Garbage in, garbage out”, sorry to say.  

Frankly, the truth must be told: there is a systemic inequality in our educational system–an inequality that our leaders have failed to acknowledge. Some of the educational structures and policies in Ghana appear *fair* on paper but in practice, they *favour* some schools whilst disadvantaging others. A typical example is the placement of JHS pupils in the SHSs.

My humble appeal, therefore, to the president, the Honourable Minister of Education, the Director-General of Education and all key stakeholders of Ghana’s education is that the systemic inequality in school placement should be reviewed or abolished: every SHS in Ghana regardless of its status should be given the same “seedlings." That is, all schools should be given learners of equal quality and ability, beginning with this “farming season” (2025 BECE candidates). Only then would it be *right* and *fair* to praise some schools for high academic achievement and question others for their poor academic performance. 

May God bless our homeland, Ghana, and make it great and strong!

Happy Workers' Day to all Ghanaian workers, especially the selfless teachers! May our hard work, dedication and perseverance help build a better future for Mother Ghana!

Attah Dari, Sharif,

Tuna Senior High/Tech. School,

Tuna, Savannah Region.