The airwaves have been clogged for the past couple of days with the news of the sacking of 250 students from LaBone Senior High School.
Said students were believed to have failed in four subjects out of eight, and by virtue of that have earned dismissal from school.
I don’t know why I somehow got the idea into my head that schools were meant to educate, because clearly LaBone Senior High School are not ready to educate these 250 students.
If students came to you for education, and the response is to send them back home at the first sign of failure; then the school as a whole has admitted failure in carrying out its core purpose.
These senior high school days are the most formative stage of anyone’s life, and are the time the adult to come is formed in every teenager.
Tinged with such failure, it does not bode well for these 250 students.
Aside the absurdity of an educational institution turning away students because they failed: keeping mind this is not the tertiary level or higher- the far bigger problem I feel is our over reliance on students grades whilst we run a highly theoretical educational system.
Students have to learn and grapple with several theoretical concepts, half of which they do not fully comprehend. Then they have to take exams on these; I’m surprised more students do not fail.
If we had a system that mixed hands on practical experience to the theoretical aspects, then you would know the education is leading somewhere, and any exams would be a fair reflection of not just the student’s academic competence but their ability in the real world practice of their craft.
As it stands, we are just checking their ability to be parrots; read and recite whatever they are taught without necessarily understanding it. I’m sure we all remember the ‘chew and pour’ we were forced to adopt to pass our exams.
In that situation, ‘F’ is not the real measure of any student in an exams, it just shows they have to work a little on their parrot skills.
And as we all know, school grades are not necessarily indicative of a person’s competence in the real world environment, and it rings even hollower in our particular instance.
I think when the reform our educational system needs is implemented, and the tests adequately measure the worth of students both theoretically and practically, we can be more confident in getting rid of students who fail to pass.
For now, we are just denying them a much needed education, however flawed, from these poor kids who might turn things around given another chance. We should relax a little more on reading too much into grades and concentrate on giving students an education that does not land them in the tertiary system virtually helpless.
Chris i have a few questions for you. when u was in school,did u not at a point study late into the night n behaved like a student in order to get good grades at the end of term n even your final exams? We all did same and passed our exams so why not them? why shoudnt lazy students who refuse to reach the pass mark be shown the exit by school authorities? it will interest u to know that most of these affected students re just plain lazy and do not want to sit their asses down to study. they re always on whatsapp n other social media platforms so y whouldnt they fail?Wait until you invest heavily in your kid sis’s shs education and she comes out with the worse grades you have ever seen at the wassce finals. it happened to me and i wished the school authorities in her school had done the same to wake her up from her stupid sleep instead of registering her for the final exams. A student is a student and should study to pass exams. simply as that… lets not behave as typical Ghanaians who defend wrong doing
Multiple propagation of falsehood does not make it true…The fact that you and I and many others did something does not mean that thing is right or does not have buildin problems, worth addressing or alteration…
I also remember studying certain topics, which today have been removed from the syllabus because they do not have well placed importance..What do you have to say to that?
Excerpt from a conversation I had woth a friend yesterday: “I graduated with a 3.9 gpa. On paper, i was a smart kid. I regret attending Legon. It was nothing but a big fat waste of time. It did not prepare me for the real world. My classmates at MIT grad sch own small business. I can only brag about the bottles of beer I consumed” Those were the words of a very good friend. Ghanaian education system needs reform. Until the system is able to produce graduates who can function in the workforce, we have a lot of cleaning up/ tweeking to do. We spend our time talking about who owns the most expensive car when a Business Admin graduate doesnt even know the basic principles of Excel…
I think Ghanaian teachers and Education staff should be offered the opportunity to come to the U.K for further training in delivering quality education and how to deal with special needs pupils.
Chris i have a few questions for you. when u was in school,did u not at a point study late into the night n behaved like a student in order to get good grades at the end of term n even your final exams? We all did same and passed our exams so why not them? why shoudnt lazy students who refuse to reach the pass mark be shown the exit by school authorities? it will interest u to know that most of these affected students re just plain lazy and do not want to sit their asses down to study. they re always on whatsapp n other social media platforms so y whouldnt they fail?Wait until you invest heavily in your kid sis’s shs education and she comes out with the worse grades you have ever seen at the wassce finals. it happened to me and i wished the school authorities in her school had done the same to wake her up from her stupid sleep instead of registering her for the final exams. A student is a student and should study to pass exams. simply as that… lets not behave as typical Ghanaians who defend wrong doing
Multiple propagation of falsehood does not make it true…The fact that you and I and many others did something does not mean that thing is right or does not have buildin problems, worth addressing or alteration…
I also remember studying certain topics, which today have been removed from the syllabus because they do not have well placed importance..What do you have to say to that?
Excerpt from a conversation I had woth a friend yesterday: “I graduated with a 3.9 gpa. On paper, i was a smart kid. I regret attending Legon. It was nothing but a big fat waste of time. It did not prepare me for the real world. My classmates at MIT grad sch own small business. I can only brag about the bottles of beer I consumed” Those were the words of a very good friend. Ghanaian education system needs reform. Until the system is able to produce graduates who can function in the workforce, we have a lot of cleaning up/ tweeking to do. We spend our time talking about who owns the most expensive car when a Business Admin graduate doesnt even know the basic principles of Excel…
I think Ghanaian teachers and Education staff should be offered the opportunity to come to the U.K for further training in delivering quality education and how to deal with special needs pupils.
I have never heard or seen anybody dismissed from an English secondary school because of poor grades. they rather put you intouch with the appropriate department so one can be given the necessary help. remember some of them might be dislexic, suffering from depression and a whole lot of problems these educationist and teachers might not even have the knowlege and the necessary training to deal with it.
I have never heard or seen anybody dismissed from an English secondary school because of poor grades. they rather put you intouch with the appropriate department so one can be given the necessary help. remember some of them might be dislexic, suffering from depression and a whole lot of problems these educationist and teachers might not even have the knowlege and the necessary training to deal with it.