Act of sadism

The Ghana Education Service, under the Free SHS programme, recently came out with a new policy to direct pupils sitting for their Basic Education Certificate Examination to select SHS of their choice before taking their papers with the explanation that there could be a psychological boost with pupils doing their best to qualify for the type of schools selected.

A few days after the exercise had closed, there was another announcement that pupils are being asked to make choices from private SHS which had not been part of the choices offered pupils formally. This is because, the government has agreed with the private SHS to provide a subsidy for every student enrolled, equivalent to the subsidy provided by government to day students in public SHSs.

Because like Achebe, I have tried not to be an actor but an objective observer, there have been many happenings in the past about some private schools that I  have refrained from commenting about.

These include schools without the appropriate basic infrastructure, to inadequate and unqualified human resource through examination malpractices, including coaching pupils to cheat.

Undermine

Over the years also, there are a myriad of subtle  practices adopted by some of the private schools to undermine or mortgage the future of pupils. There are numerous instances, where pupils have been barred from taking part in examinations. Although technically, the examination centres are supposed to be beyond the control of the school managements, others collect fees and fail to register the pupils with the West African Examinations Council.

In all these and for all the period that I worked at the Graphic Communications Group Ltd. as journalist, editor and director, I decided to watch and observe in the hope that we would be responsible enough to hold those who destroy the future of any child accountable.

But it seems because there has not been punitive reactions, the deviants are emboldened, despite the spirited effort  my friend's organisation, Child's Right International, has put in to protect the rights of children.

Meduma

The recent incident, where some pupils from a school at Meduma in the Ashanti Region, were physically manhandled and removed from the examination hall, preventing them from writing the paper, has irked and exercised me beyond measure for as Chinua Achebe puts it in Anthills of the Savannah " but today's incident has shown that a man must not swallow his cough because he fears to disturb others".

In the first place, there is no contract between the pupil and the school.

Therefore, the child must not suffer any liability or penalty vicariously  because of the failure of the parents to settle the fees.

Whatever it is, the fees will be recovered.

The final examination lies outside the mandate of the school but exclusively with WAEC.

Denying the child the opportunity to take that paper, damages the future of the child irreparably.

So, whilst there is a remedy for the school to collect the arrears, the child has no opportunity within the year to resit the paper.

What could be worse is the fact that the affected children may never be composed enough or recover from the trauma and humiliation they have been exposed to, to  ever resit the paper.

The other incident about the children involved in an accident with the concomitant that they arrived late at the examination centre, and were denied entry into the examination centre, is about the use of a discretion that went awry and dysfunctional.

Here, the officers involved can be understood, for they followed rules which prescribe the non-admission of candidates after the lapse of a certain time when examination has commenced. 

Under the Children's Act 1998 (Act 560) we are enjoined at all times to seek, promote and protect the best interest of the child.

That is why I am interested in what the Minister of Education, my Ghana School of Law Classmate 2002, as well as the MP for Kwabre East, wants to be done for the affected pupils.

The difference though is that one is from the wilful, irresponsible and sadistic act of a school manager, whilst the other is from an accident and application of a regulation.

Whilst the WAEC officials who denied the latecomers cannot be held personally  liable, the school manager at Meduma must be held culpable and prosecuted for being sadistic and intruding into a responsibility which belongs to WAEC and damaging the future of the affected pupils.

That is why I would want to plead with Appiah, to deploy all the might of the Child's Right International and the national association of private schools to fight the madness from such private school proprietors, even as we begin an experiment to involve them at the level of the SHS.

Otherwise, I will suggest that the state must not involve itself in asking pupils to select private schools formally, but to leave them to market themselves to attract students and parents to seek admission, just as the case with the private tertiary educational institutions.

Rotten tomatoes

We must know and understand how things should be done before rotten tomatoes are thrown our way.

The fact is that government releases are irregular.

There is thus the possibility of a proprietor asking students to go home or refusing to allow them to write their final examination because the subsidy has not come. 

At Sixth Form at Asankrangwa Secondary School in 1977, we were asked to go home for our fees because the Scholarship Secretariat had delayed in releasing funds.  Not knowing what to do, I wrote to the Supreme Military Council and the response was swift, that my fees be absorbed.

Unable to justify why the headmaster asked students on scholarship to go home for their fees, both the Regional and District Directors of the Ghana Education Service came  to Asankrangwa to plead and assure me that I will not be sent home.

If sending people away for non-payment of fees could happen within public schools, it could be common with private schools.

There must thus be a memorandum of understanding between the Ghana Education Service and the National association of private schools, before the government agrees to allow private schools have the privilege of attracting students officially as is the case with public schools.