DEAR READER, if you are looking for an excellent senior secondary school for your child, then look no more because your search is at an end.
A so-called examination “League Table” published by the Ministry of Education seems to indicate that Diaso Senior Secondary School is the school you are looking for.
The 2004 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) results recently published in the Daily Graphic show Diaso Senior Secondary School beating such popularly acclaimed senior secondary schools as Yaa Asantewaa Girls Secondary School, Mfantsipim School, Prempeh College, Achimota School and Aburi Girls Secondary School.
Other “big names” floored by Diaso include Presbyterian Boys Secondary School, St. Augustine’s College, St. Peter’s Secondary School, St. Rose’s Secondary School and Holy Child Secondary School.
You know why? Diaso scored one hundred percent while the schools mentioned did not.
In 2003, Diaso was placed in the 307th position. In 2004, it is among the five schools that scored one hundred percent and consequently placed first. It is a feat, not so? (Sorry, Africanus Owusu Ansah of CEPS. I meant, “Isn’t it?”
I do not for the life of me understand why the Ministry of Education continues with this charade about a so-called league table of examination performance.
The maiden publication of 2003 only succeeded in creating a false picture of the real situation.
Some past students of some of the ‘big league’ schools were so embarrassed by the position of their schools that they descended on the heads of these schools with fury and demanded answers to explain the ‘failure’ to perform.
One would have thought that the Ministry of Education would learn lessons from the criticisms and suggestions from members of the public when the ‘league’ was published. Apparently, the ministry has not.
For example, Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast, which placed first again in 2004 as in 2003, presented 381 candidates.
Of these candidates, 374 passed in eight subjects, six passed in seven subjects and one passed in six subjects.
Prempeh College in Kumasi, which placed 15th, the same as in 2003, presented the highest number of candidates, 813.
Of that number, 709 passed in eight subjects, 76 passed in seven subjects, 19 passed in six subjects, six passed in five subjects, one passed in four subjects, one passed in three subjects, and one passed in one subject.
On the other hand, Diaso Senior Secondary presented only 52 candidates. Of that number, one passed in eight subjects. The number of candidates passing in seven subjects was 47 while five passed in six subjects.
Is Diaso Senior Secondary School a better school than Prempeh College with its 813 candidates or Presec, Legon with 787 candidates, or Kumasi High School with 686 candidates or Mfantsipim with 545 candidates or Achimota School with 521 candidates?
Agate Senior Secondary School presented 8 (eight) candidates and scored 37.50 while Nalerigu Senior Secondary School presented 336 candidates and scored 30.95 percent.
Can our mathematicians, statisticians and experts in educational measurements tell us that these figures give us a true picture of the performance of these schools?
I hope that this time round, past students of the so-called prestigious schools will go easy on the headmasters and headmistresses of their former schools.
What should agitate our minds is not the placing of a particular school in the so-called league but that school’s performance overall.
For example, how many candidates did a school present? What were their aggregates, which formed the basis of their admission to SSS 1 before they finally took the SSSCE?
On the examination itself, how many of the candidates got an ‘A’, how many got a ‘B’, how many got a ‘C’, how many got a ‘D’, how many got an ‘E’ and how many got an ‘F’? Again, how many qualified to pursue further courses at the university, the polytechnic, the Teacher Training College and other educational institutions.
The league table does not provide answers.
Generally speaking, a school, which admitted candidates with very good aggregates, obtained after the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) stands a better chance of performing well at the SSSCE than a school which had to make do with candidates with, say, between 25 and 30.of course, other factors that come into Play include the availability of the right kind of equipment that is also quantitatively adequate, the type of teachers and the quality of the teaching.
Not to be overlooked is the exercise of supervision by the school administration led by the headmaster or headmistress.
It is agreed that lax supervision leads to malingering, even frequent absence from school by both students and staff. That means that, even with the right kind of equipment and qualified teachers, results can still be poor unless supervision is good.
It is also the case that, as a general rule, boarding school students tend to have an advantage over those attending day schools.
Relatively easy availability and regularity of meals, regulation of students’ time, night studies and entertainment all help to promote better results.
When day students have to think of where the next meal may be coming from, when they have to travel long distances before getting to school, when unfavourable home environment makes night study virtually impossible and when these are added to unimpressive aggregates obtained at the BECE, their best may not be good enough.
The older schools established long before the new senior secondary schools tend to perform better than the new ones created as a result of the educational reforms that ushered in the junior secondary school concept.
Again, schools in the urban and semi-urban areas may also perform better than schools in some God-forsaken rural area where staff may be quantitatively inadequate. Students in urban areas can fall on the services of other teachers generally acclaimed by students and their parents as being experts in their respective fields.
The circle is vicious. Academically brilliant students tend to attend prestigious schools in the urban and semi-urban centres while their less brilliant counterparts have to make do with the schools in he rural areas. Why will there not be grave disparities in the results?
It is not enough for the Ministry of Education to continue to publish results and rank the schools in a false order of performance.
From the ‘League Table’, I saw a school that had existed since 1991, that is thirteen years after the introduction of the reforms.
That school presented only 26 candidates for the 2004 SSSCE.
That school is sited in a rural area and it is a day school. Of the 26 (Twenty six) candidates presented, only eight had passes of between 6 and 7. The percentage passes came up to 30.77. Given the unfavourable environment, the prospects of this school developing and growing are very slim indeed.
The Ministry of Education should do something more useful for education, rather than publish a so-called table tending to show which are better-performing schools and which are not.
I know that the very idea of possible closing down some of these schools sounds like heresy to some people. Yet it is clear that there is no way these schools could develop when the inhabitants in whose midst such schools exist have no respect for the schools and prefer sending their children and wards to other schools.
The Government’s avowed intention to develop at least one secondary school into a first class one in each district is good but it will not solve the problem of those schools that are either dying or have become atrophied for various reasons.
We keep saying that everyone needs education, that it should be seen as birthright and that, without education, society cannot make progress.
The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) should be up and doing instead of getting satisfaction from publishing ‘Leagues’ of schools.
