Leadership of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) is preparing to sue government over what they describe as a discriminatory, uneven distribution of students under the Senior High School computer placement system.
President of the association, Dr. Damasus Tuurusong, says the 30 percent priority allocation of grade “A” SHS admissions to public schools is a disadvantage to students in private Junior High Schools.
The situation he says is forcing students to leave the private basic institutions for public schools to increase their chances of getting placement by the SHS computer selection system.
Leadership of the association says all means to have the policy reversed have proved futile.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools week, Dr. Tuurusong indicated that “we’ve used many avenues of trying to persuade the government and policymakers to do away with this discriminatory policy of 30% priority placement to category ‘A’ schools for public junior high schools. It’s reached a level where we indeed need to test the law and see how we can get the issue addressed”.
The Senior High School computer placement policy currently gives 30 percent priority placement to Grade ‘A’ schools to students from public schools before the remaining 70 per cent is shared to all basic schools across the country.
The Ghana National Association of Private schools (GNAPS) says the policy rolled out by the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education is discriminatory towards private schools.
Dr. Tuurusong says the private schools are now recording lower student enrolment for the basic education certificate examination due to what they describe as the ‘discriminatory’ policy.
“Every student entering senior high school wants the best. So, when they go to a private school, their chances of entering a category ‘A’ school are reduced. So, when they get to the early years of junior high school, they leave the private schools and go to the public. These students because of their grooming from the private schools they come out as the best and get placed in the best senior high schools,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour has called “for more collaboration with the association to have its concerns addressed”.
source myjoyonline
