Veteran educationist Professor Stephen Adei has reiterated that former President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to build some 200 community schools was impractical and a waste of time.
Prof Stephen Adei said the school buildings, with a capacity to enroll 1,500 students each, is unnecessary because it would not be beneficial to these smaller towns.
“They are only useful for urban areas. All that they have put in the villages are going to be useless.The only people who benefitted from it are the contractors not Ghana’s education,” he said.
However, during his tenure as president, Mahama, justifying the need for the community Day Senior High Schools said over 184,500 students will have access to education once the project was completed.
“I’ve been asked by many people why we have built such huge edifices to house secondary schools. Each of these schools has a capacity to take 1,500 students. Currently as I speak with these e-blocks we are building 123 of them that should give you the scope of the size of the intervention that we are doing into secondary education. This probably will go on record as the single largest expansion of access of secondary education in the history of Ghana.” John Mahama said at the inauguration of the seventh Community Day Senior High School at Abease in the Pru District of Brong-Ahafo.
Meanwhile Prof Adei, in an interview on ’21 minutes with KKB’ stated that day and boarding SHS are suitable for larger communities where access to amenities are much easier.
To him, the day schools in smaller towns pose some daunting challenges including the lack of boarding facilities for students who may be posted to schools in villages as well as teachers who may be denied bungalows.
“They are useless because to transport 1,500 people you have to go about 30 km radius in order to fill them without any boarding, without any teachers’ bungalows, nothing. How can you do so?” he explained.
On the other hand, he added that although he supports the ideas of community schools, the villages needed approximately 10 smaller boarding or day Senior High Schools.
“So it was a module gone wrong but I support the idea of having community schools.” He lamented.
Source:Peacefmonline
