An academic group, Progressive Intellectuals has predicted that public universities in Ghana will run a double track system as a result of the huge number of students going to be churned out by the Free Senior High School policy.
The group is made up of lecturers and academics from University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and University of Development Studies.
Speaking at a public forum dubbed “Pubic Policy Dialogue” at the Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, a member of the group and sociology lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Samson Obed Appiah, stated the implementation of the Free Senior High School would have a knock-on effect on the university admission.
“You will realize that our government policy on the Free SHS does not have a direct link with the tertiary institution. So next year, 2020, don’t be surprised to see the same challenges we saw with the Free SHS in the tertiary institutions,” he noted.
“My question is are we going to have double track in our universities?” he quizzed.
University of Ghana was hit with an accommodation crisis in September this year with the admission of the first year students.
It is estimated that some 45,000 students will be seeking enrollment in public universities the first batch of the free senior high school exit .
Dr. Appiah noted that university of Ghana like all the other universities don’t have the capacity in terms of accommodation, lecture halls and human resource to meet the challenge of enrollment in 2020.
“Accommodation is something I can confidently say our government is not ready…how many lecture halls have we put up?”
Dr. Appiah has asked the government to lift the moratorium on employment of lecturers.
He lamented the workload of lecturers saying, “I have a Level 100 sociology class of 1,785 which I divided into 3 classes … students are always looking for place to sit.”
Quality, the group fears might be compromised for political gains.
Source: 3news
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