Gapson Kofi Raphael, the General Secretary of the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA), has backed calls for the government to eliminate the categorisation of Senior High Schools (SHS), urging state authorities to upgrade all institutions to an equal standard.
He stated that this move would address the annual oversubscription of so-called Category A and B schools, noting that the obsession with top-tier institutions has left Category C schools widely overlooked.
He explained that schools falling below Categories A and B have been deprived of necessary attention, rendering them unattractive to prospective students. While commending the government’s plan to upgrade selected Category B and C schools to higher tiers as a positive step, he maintained that the ultimate goal must be raising the quality of all schools to make them equal.
Highlighting systemic challenges, Mr Raphael noted that senior high schools currently face severe deficits in classrooms, laboratories, dormitories, and teaching staff. He pointed out that while the introduction of the Free SHS policy significantly boosted access and enrolment, the rapid expansion exposed long-standing capacity constraints.
Speaking in an interview on As It Is In Ghana on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM and Rainbow Radio 92.4, UK, he revealed that 313,283 candidates selected Category A schools as their first choice, despite only 76,417 vacancies being available in that category.
He added that out of the 859,828 total vacancies nationwide, 468,652 are in Category C and 250,366 in Category B, but these spaces fail to attract interest from parents and guardians. Until the capacity and quality of Grade B and C schools are substantially expanded, he warned, the country will continue to face the same placement challenges.
“We have to do our best in raising or improving the levels of our schools to the same level. They should be given the same facilities and logistics. We also recognise the efforts by the government in upgrading some of our schools. We commend Hon. Minister Haruna Iddrisu for securing the ~US$300 million World Bank facility. But we have to ensure that the resources are allocated to the schools that really need the money before the upgrade and not those that are already in good standing.”
The NCPTA General Secretary called on the government to collaborate with the Council as it executes the expansion and upgrade of Category B and C schools.
He further proposed an affirmative action policy where students from severely deprived communities with grades such as aggregate 30 are admitted into Category A schools to ensure equity. He argued that such an approach would help these students improve while testing and affirming the true academic strength of top-tier schools.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
