Deputy Ranking Member on the Ghanaian Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Abass Apaak, says the new 2023 academic calendar should be in consonance with what the teachers or teacher unions are asking for.
This is in reaction to earlier concerns raised by some teacher unions and parents over the academic calendar.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) recently released the 2023 academic calendar for all government schools, specifically the senior high school, senior high technical school, junior high school, primary school, and kindergarten.
For double-track students in Form 3 [three] who opened schools on January 10, 2023, the GES noted that they will go on break between April 6–16, 2023, and return on April 17, 2023.
The students will then go on another break between June 2–8, 2023. They will resume on June 9 and stay in schools up to September 15, 2023, to end the academic year for the first term.
GES underscored that JHS 3 students will go on vacation between March 25 and April 2, 2023. They will resume on April 3, 2023, for the second term. They will then go on vacation again between June 16 and 26, 2023. They will return to school on June 27, 2023, for the third term.
According to GES, the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) will start in September 2023.
But the teacher unions have since been fighting for the previous academic calendar, where the students do not have to run the current shift system.
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Speaking on Atinka FM‘s morning show, AM Drive with Kaaakyire Ofori Ayim, Dr. Clement Abass Apaak said, “If there is changes, it should be a change in consonance with what the teacher sand the teacher unions have been asking for, if it is like that, then I think it will help, but if it is something else the GES is doing, I think it will be a problem,”
Despite his take on the matter, he said the calendar was not the main issue, but rather how the teaching and learning will improve.
Touching on rumours that BECE would be scrapped, he said he has also read such reports on social media, but he could not tell whether they were true or not, stating that if they were true, they would definitely be sent to Parliament before they reached the public.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
