The Minister for Education has announced plans to upgrade the Senior High School certificate into a National Diploma certificate which can allow graduates to gain employment after completion of their programmes.
The Minister said it is unfair for young people in the country to be forced to complete University before being eligible for employment in the country.
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Speaking at the 2019 Danquah Institute Leadership lecture under the theme: “World Class Education and Imperative for the Next Generation of Leaders,” Matthew Opoku Prempeh said a new curriculum for Junior High Schools in the country will see JHS graduates completing with National Higher Diplomas while qualified SHS graduates will be awarded with National Diplomas.
He noted that such an upgrade for their qualification will make the graduates more relevant and not having to necessarily obtain University education to be qualified for employment in the country.
“The curriculum that will appear for the Junior High School will lead to a National Higher Diploma, [and] when you finish Senior High School, you get a National Diploma. It is not everybody who must go to the University straight, but we must prepare our kids for the world of work.”
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“And that National Diploma will ensure that our kids can go straight to work. If someone can go with the Middle School leaving certificate into the army, why can’t someone go now with Senior High School diploma into work? That should be good enough that anybody who has passed and has a certificate should be able to be employed provided we have prepared that person,” he said.
Mathew Opoku Prempeh further advocated for adequate training for Ghanaian students to make them technologically savvy.
He said such a trait will make Ghanaian graduates compete favourably with their counterparts from other parts of the world.
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University education reduced to 3 years
The Minister at the same event also hinted of government plans to ensure the reduction in the duration for pursuing undergraduate degree programs from four years to three years.
“Everywhere in the world, undergrad is three years not four years, why should we spend four years doing undergrad? We will sit down with the university lecturers and start challenging them because Ghana is not an island,” the minister said.