Africa Education Watch: Reversal Of Semester System For Basic Schools A Good Decision

Education think tank, Africa Education Watch, has asked the Ghana Education Service to channel its energies towards addressing challenges in the sector rather than introducing policies such as the semester system at the Basic to Senior High School level.

The calls come on the back of the service’s decision to revert to the trimester system for basic schools after some opposition to the new system.

In an interview with Citi News, however,  the Executive Director of the think tank, Kofi Asare described the decision as welcoming but hurriedly indicated that there is no need for a change in the status quo following the lack of consultation.

“The decision to revert to the trimester system is a good one. There was no need to move to a semester system because there was no flaw in the trimester system which was not surmountable. So, going back to where it came from, obviously, is the best thing to do. I believe that the lesson from this in developing this policy will have to be building consensus among the parties involved”.

The government went back on its earlier directive for basic schools to run a semester-based academic calendar.

It made the announcement in a statement on Friday, January 21, 2022.

The directive for basic schools, including Kindergarten, and Junior High School to change the trimester-based calendar to a semester-based one last week, was received with controversy with many teacher unions kicking against it.

Many of them were not enthused that the government had not engaged them on such a major switch, although the government insisted that it had held extensive consultations with them.

Some of the education workers vowed to resist the directive and called for its withdrawal.

After hesitating initially, the government has now decided to reverse the decision.

The Ministry of Education in the statement indicated that the decision was taken after engagements with various education stakeholders and the conclusion was to reinstate the trimester system.

Consequently, the first term starts on January 18 to 14th April 2022.

The second term commences 10th May and ends on 18th August 2022, while the third term will span 13th September to 22nd December 2022.