Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has announced that government is set to upgrade 20 Category B Senior High Schools to Category A status.
The Education Minister disclosed that the move forms part of efforts to create more opportunities for students seeking admission to the country’s most sought-after schools.
He further announced plans by the government to construct 10 new model Category A schools to ease the pressure on the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).
Haruna Iddrisu said the government had secured $300 million from the World Bank through the STARR-J initiative to support the infrastructure expansion.
The Education Minister disclosed that he had directed GETFund to dedicate between GH¢250 million and GH¢300 million in 2027 to expand facilities in 10 Category A schools.
Speaking on TV3 on September 11, Haruna Iddrisu stated, “We are going to convert 20 Category B schools into A, and we will build 10 new model Category A schools in the country.”
Haruna Iddrisu highlighted that the upgrade was necessary because demand for Category A schools had outpaced available capacity, with 328,000 students selecting Category A schools but only 76,000 vacancies were available.
Meanwhile, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, the Member of Parliament(MP) for Akim Swedru, has urged the John Mahama government to upgrade at least one SHS in each of Ghana’s 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to reduce placement pressure.
The MP argued that his proposal will help reduce the intense competition for places in Ghana’s most prestigious senior high schools.
Kennedy Osei Nyarko highlighted that MMDA should have at least one well-resourced SHS with quality teaching staff and facilities equivalent to some of Ghana’s best-known Category A schools.
In a Facebook post, Kennedy Osei Nyarko stated, “I think it’s time for the country to at least upgrade one secondary school in each of the 261 MMDAs to a first-class Category A school with quality teaching staff to the level of Achimota, PRESEC, Mfantsipim, Adisadel, Wesley Girls, Prempeh’s etc”.
“Students who want Category A schools will remain in their respective Districts instead of the current approach where every student wants placements at the most prestigious and recognised Category A schools in other regions,” he stated.
Also, Solomon Owusu, Director of Communications for the United Party, has said placement in a lesser-categorised school does not define a student.
According to Solomon Owusu, if a student is a fool, they are a fool, and a Category A school placement will not change anything.
He argued that the whole hullabaloo about Category A schools is because ones in the likelihood of getting into university is very high.
Speaking on TV3 New Day, Solomon Owusu stated, “What makes a school in this country Category A? What is so special about the Category A that we talk about? What is the prestige? Is it the old boys that are making it prestigious? The very vagabonds you find in the so-called Category C are the same ones you are seeing in the so-called Category A.
“The schools in the so-called Category A, what they do is that they present their best 200 and come and show you they all had 8As. What about the rest? They took about 4000 people to go and write, go and check, go into it. You will see the Fs; if they were indeed Category A, this country would have been transformed”.
He further cited the widely used author of the Aki Ola mathematics test book, who he said attended Obuasi Secondary Technical School.
Solomon Owusu added, “W’abon a w’abon, if you are a fool you are a fool; the Category A school placement will not change anything”.
“Having experienced the so-called Category A, there are a lot of things I don’t want to expose. The science students now barely even attend labs; how can you be doing science and not be going to the lab, and you call yourself Category A?”
“In their mind, when they get to Category A, the likelihood of getting a grade A University is very high; that is all to it. But the whole work rests on the student. If the student is not going to learn. I bet you, you are not going to achieve anything”.
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