In Ghana, most private schools provide a much better education than most public schools, and many people would not hesitate to enrol in a private institution. Though the government has good intentions in creating policies concerning public school education, as a former senior secondary school student, I believe those policies are the reason why a public school education is not up to standard.

Although education in the public sector is mentioned as a priority of the government, the funds allocated are inadequate. Teachers are not paid enough for their services and are not provided the educational resources (computers, lab equipment, textbooks, and sometimes even chalk) to do their job effectively. Many teachers do not attend class regularly, as their commitment to work decreases. Just like other individuals in society, teachers have responsibilities in their lives, such as families to support. When they are not well compensated for their work, they will find other means of acquiring income. The time our teachers are spending trying to earn a living is eating into the time they should be in class teaching.

The government says it wants to help society by providing a good education to everyone; they should therefore be willing to spend in order to achieve such a goal. Nothing comes cheap or easy. However, understanding that the government does not have unlimited resources, it is fair to suggest that instead of providing universal free education to the students, the government should provide universal 'pay-something' education.

Currently, students in public primary schools do not pay school fees but rather incur costs for the books used. Many would see this as an advantage, believing that education must be free so as to allow easier access to knowledge, especially in a developing country such as Ghana.  I, on the other hand, beg to differ.

Our current public education system is not providing us the skills and knowledge we need to drive our country forward. We need more resources to improve the quality of our education system. Our current system of educational subsidies does not discriminate between rich and poor people. In fact, Ghana’s elite public secondary schools are filled with children from privileged households at the expense of the ordinary Ghanaian. This means that wealthy people, who are able to afford private schools, take advantage of the universal free education, thereby depriving the government of more funds.

One feasible solution would be to ask students to pay fees that correspond to their family’s annual income. People from wealthy families will pay more than people who earn very little.  This would provide more resources to schools and allow people to pay for education based on their means. This in turn results in everyone in society having access to better quality education, while providing the government with funds for needed educational facilities.

Concerning the duration of a secondary school education, I believe that the past governments made a huge error in changing from the British 'O-Level' and 'A-Level' seven-year system to that of the six-year system, in which a student does three years of junior secondary school and then three years of senior secondary school.

Having been a student in an institution with a British curriculum till form three and then enrolling in an institution which uses the new six-year system started in 1987, I had a first-hand experience regarding the short-comings of a three-year senior high school education.

A major short-coming is the fact that the three-year duration is too short to allow the syllabus to be completed comfortably. Most often, many of the subjects taken are not completed and as the time to write the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination - now the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) - draws closer, many topics are skipped and/or rushed through and students are not fully prepared to write the examination. I therefore support the four-year duration of a senior secondary education and believe that the current government's decision to bring back the three-year system will be detrimental to students’ education.