Free SHS: Gold track reopening deferred to Nov 15

They were originally billed to report tomorrow, November 12, 2019, but a letter from the Ghana Education Service (GES), addressed to all regional directors of education last Friday, said the mid-semester break had been extended and that students would now report on November 15 for academic work to begin on Monday, November 18. 

“Students are expected to return over the weekend to ensure that full academic work resumes on Monday, November 18, 2019.

“This directive equally applies to all SHS One and Two students on the Gold Track who were expected to report to school on Tuesday, November 12, 2019,” a letter signed by the Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said.

In view of the directive, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa directed regional directors of education to ensure that all heads of SHSs across the country made the necessary arrangements to put their school facilities in  a state of preparedness to begin academic work on November 18, 2019.

CHASS request

Throwing more light on the letter, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa told the Daily Graphic that the request for extension was from the  Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to the GES, “and management of GES saw merit in it and granted it.”

He explained that the decision was to enable the schools to do the necessary clean-ups, and undertake the maintenance of broken down furniture such as beds, tables, and related activities that would smoothen academic work.

Academic work

As to whether the extension of the mid-semester would not affect the academic timetable, the Director-General gave an assurance that the students would not lose out.

“It will rather give the schools enough time to put things in order for the next batch of students,” he explained.

He said SHS Three students were exempt and were expected to go back to school as originally scheduled.

Parents react

Meanwhile, some parents the Daily Graphic spoke to expressed divergent views about the extension of the reopening date.

A parent, whose child is entering Form One, said he bought an advance bus ticket to take the child to school tomorrow only to be hit with the postponement.

“The postponement has dislocated my plans and now I don’t know if I will be able to return the ticket for my money,” he said.

However, another parent said the postponement would enable him to purchase some few items he was unable to buy for his child.

“It is good for me, because I couldn’t get money to buy all the things my child needed. Now I can have the time to look for money to buy those things,” he said.