Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh
MINISTER OF Education Mathew Opoku-Prempeh has debunked media reports claiming that he has announced that the duration for university education will reduce from four to three years.
The minister has also dismissed reports that he said junior and senior high schools would be awarding diploma certificates.
In a statement issued by its Director of Communication, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, the Education Ministry said Mr. Opoku-Prempeh was misrepresented in the media reportages from the Danquah Institute’s (DI) public lecture held on Friday, February 8, 2019 in Accra.
The lecture was held under the theme: “World Class Education: An Imperative For The Next Generation Of Leaders”.
According to the statement, “the ministry wants to state that the minister’s comments have been misrepresented and taken out of context.”
In setting the records straight, the statement added that “touching on the pre-tertiary curriculum reforms currently being pursued by government, the minister referred to the need for a strong and robust pre-tertiary education structure. He noted that with such a system, a discussion on whether the current four year undergraduate degree could be reduced to three years.”
It said “indeed, the Minister referred to the fact that prior to the 1987 reforms that saw the shift from ‘A’ level to be Senior High School system, an undergraduate degree was three years, similar to, and that in the case of the university of Ghana in particular, the first year was non-scoring referred to as First University Examination.”
According to the statement, the minister, in his speech, sought to trigger a national dialogue to potentially reconsider reverting to this undergraduate model on the basis of a much improved and robust senior high school curriculum so that students can be adequately prepared for a three-year undergraduate programme.
On the second issue, it said the minister sought to ignite a conversation on whether all senior high school students take a university entrance exam such as the West African Senior Secondary School Examination given the diversity of learners in Ghana’s senior high school system.
BY Melvin Tarlue