Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak has disclosed that there are agitations from some colleague academicians in the universities seeking to propose an entrance exam module for students enrolling under government’s free Senior High School (SHS) policy and seeking to move into the universities.
The deputy ranking member said the agitation is informed by the abysmal academic performance students under the programme display when they get to the universities. This, he said has been disclosed by lecturers at the various university campuses.
According to him, the said students pass their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) with good grades but struggle to cop academically when they enter the universities.
“You can call a few of my colleagues who are still at the universities, lecturers, and ask them the quality of students who are coming through these days. They will tell you that the quality is unsatisfactory.
“There are agitations from colleagues who’re still in academia proposing the need to institute an entrance examination because we have students who write WASSCE, get very good grades but when they get to the universities and other tertiary institutions, they are struggling to cope with tertiary level educational activity,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday.
He explained that although there is no evidence that the poor performance of students in the tertiary institutions stems from the Free S.H.S programme, since it is the level that feeds the tertiary institutions, it is the cause of the abysmal performances.
He therefore expressed that the country is not getting value for money.
“The Free Senior High School has led to an increase in enrollment but with poor learning outcomes,I think that is very significant, it is largely because of that component of poor learning outcomes that justifies the call by John Mahama, the likes of Prof Ayettey, Prof Addae-Mensah, Kofi Asare of Education Watch and Dr Partey of Institute of Educational studies. Are we getting value for money and the answer is no,” he added.
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