In its quest to paint all public basic schools and change the uniform for the students to provide a different outlook, Executive Secretary of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST-Ghana), Dr. Peter Anti Partey, thinks there are challenges that need more attention.
Government has announced taking the above move as part of the many transformational initiatives to revive basic education and make it attractive in the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, hinted of the development Thursday, April 25, 2024, disclosing that the brown and yellow uniforms worn by pupils of basic schools in the country will be a thing of the past.
“We are changing the uniforms of public basic schools in the country. The yellow and brown that you see now, you will see no more. Reformation is coming to a community near you, and you will see it,” he revealed.
But Dr. Partey, speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Thursday, April 25, 2024, enumerated a host of challenges confronting basic education in Ghana that government needs to address instead of changing uniforms.
“We have challenges with most of our schools not having teachers, having infrastructure that does not demand that students should sit in those classrooms, we’ve had challenges with desk where now we are moving desks from Accra to schools that need them, we have challenges with places of convenience and places to urinate, challenges with schools without access to internet, although the component of ICT is supposed to be compulsory across all basic schools, challenges with schools without electricity, challenges where because of the nature of the school building, anytime there is rainfall, the students would have to close and go home, we’ve had challenges where the whole school system from basic one to six is being handled by two or three teachers,” he listed.
These, according to the Executive Secretary of IFEST-Ghana “are the realities on the ground and these are the things that policy maker or manager of education system should be thinking of trying to solve to push the perception that basic school is being neglected to a perception that government is showing interest in it.”
He added that the decision shows the government lacks priority when it comes to issues of education.
