Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, says Ghana must step back from political debates and confront the real issues weakening the country’s education system.
This comes in the wake of conversations surrounding the recent WASSCE performance statistics.
He believes the current situation demands a bipartisan approach, especially as recent exam outcomes reflect deeper structural problems.
Bentil argued that students are being blamed for failures caused by a system that has not been strengthened to support them.
“We are failing the kids. It’s not the kids… it’s the system that is failing the kids,” he said on TV3’s The KeyPoints on December 6.
He explained that IMANI’s early projections showed that the Free Senior High School policy, though a good initiative, required gradual implementation to avoid a sudden spike in enrollment that the system could not handle.
According to him, government pushed schools to admit large numbers without the needed preparation, stressing out facilities and teachers.
The result, he said, was a fall in quality and the later introduction of double-track.
Bentil noted that IMANI had recommended a model where funding followed the child, allowing schools to control quality and invest in facilities based on demand. But that model was not adopted.
“You can’t impose a huge burden on the education system by virtue of a policy shift and expect good outcomes unless you fix the middle,” he said.
He added that the consequences go beyond exam performance.
Ghanaian students now compete with the global workforce, and the system must prepare them for that reality.
He pointed out that companies receive large numbers of foreign applications for jobs Ghanaians can do, noting that “there are over 100,000 foreigners here doing work Ghanaians can do.”
Bentil warned that if the system is not fixed, the country will continue to produce students who struggle internationally.
He urged stakeholders to treat the situation with urgency and honesty, saying, “Our kids are going to compete globally. They are not competing with their friends here.”
