Harmonised prospectus must be respected by all

Over the years, parents have faced the headache of preparing their children adequately to begin their senior high or technical and vocational school education. 

This stems from the fact that some parents spend a fortune to secure all the items the schools present to them as a precondition for enrolling their children.

It was to address this and also relieve parents of this burden that last year, the Ghana Education Service (GES) released a harmonised prospectus for senior high and technical schools in the country.

This standardised prospectus outlines uniform requirements for all fresh students, eliminating unnecessary items previously requested by schools.

Known as the “National Prospectus”, it is designed for all prospective first-year students and spells out the uniform requirements for all fresh students.

Consequently, all schools are expected to adhere to the national prospectus without imposing any extra items, apart from those that have been officially prescribed.

This came as a big relief to parents, who will no longer have to wait until the rollout of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) before going out to shop for their children.

A major boost with the coming into force of the harmonised prospectus is its potential to eliminate items that schools could do without and also ensure that schools do not include such items and use same as a barrier to the timely enrolment of students.

The Daily Graphic, ultimately, supports this prospectus, which is in its second year because, over the years, the absence of such a prospectus gave way to school-specific prospectuses which used to be a source of anxiety and financial strain for parents.

Until the current arrangement, in many cases, schools gave an unnecessarily long list of items to parents and only enrolled students after their parents purchased everything on the list.

It was such a big thing for parents and guardians, which resulted in many first-year students reporting late to school because of the inability of their parents and guardians to buy every item on the list.

The harmonised prospectus eases the financial burden on parents and guardians, promotes fairness among students and enhances transparency within the admissions process.

In previous years, some students were reported to have missed out on their school of choice because of late reporting during which they were told their names could no longer be found on the list of the schools they earlier got admission to.

The innovative thing we observed about this academic year, which begins tomorrow, is the fact that the cleaning items, which were always compulsory and which all the students were required to purchase, have this time round been grouped into three categories, and parents and guardians need to wait to know the group their children and wards are in before buying the cleaning items.

This, indeed, is a great innovation and a relief to parents, who otherwise would have been made to buy all the items in the three categories.

While we laud this innovation, we urge the GES to rigorously enforce its implementation and carry out continuous monitoring to ensure that school heads adhere to its directives.

We are confident that heads of schools will cooperate with the GES for a smooth implementation and whenever they encounter any challenges, they will revert to the office of the director-general or their districts or regional directors for clarity and direction.

The Daily Graphic expects heads of SHSs, technical and vocational institutions to strictly abide by the directives of the GES to stick to the harmonised prospectus and not impose any new items on freshers.

Any infractions are unnecessary and as NAGRAT advised last year, heads of schools should stay away from imposing any other items on students even when they feel it is necessary.

There is no need to insist on freshers buying certain items which are school-specific and, thus, outside the harmonised prospectus.

Our children need a conducive environment to learn and we must not allow the prospectus to be a distraction.