The about-to-end school placement task has left many parents bruised. It was full of avoidable hitches and even as we write this leader some parents are yet to determine their fates their requests not yet obliged.
Some are unable to pay for the requests they are making, euphemism for bribery.
This year’s school placement season has been fraught with irregularities perhaps on the blind side of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the sector ministry…but with the subtle complicity of some school headmasters and headmistress.
The requests range from changing from day to boarding school and location changes. To have those in charge with this authority to do this parents must pay.
We are at pains to think that in this modern age of digitization the manual approach of dealing with this software-made simple school placement is the most preferred. Well the reason is not far-fetched. With the manual option the human interface becomes inevitable and hence corruption.
For parents who are unable to meet the demands of persons assigned the role of dealing with such matters borrowing to meet the demands is the only option available.
We have noted that there is always a rush to demonise previous government policies practice which creates avoidable problems as being observed in the ongoing school placement exercise.
Schools still have scenes of hurried and sometimes confused parents…they still cannot find their way with the challenges confronting them over their wards’ admissions and in some cases changes of courses.
Having worked with the previous template of school placement with dedicated staff who over the years have garnered important institutional memory of the establishment the authorities should not attempted reinventing the wheel. At best they should have perfected it by building upon it.
The mass transfer and in some cases the dismissal of staff deemed to have been employed because of their political allegiance has not helped and has rather created the hiccups which have choked the school placement arrangement.
We have learnt that the Education Ministry having appreciated the hiccups is planning to overhaul the system through possibly acquiring a software to handle the arrangement in subsequent years. We foresee a reinvention of the wheel and therefore a procurement procedure loading.
Before any such move is mulled let the authorities engage with the relevant stakeholders over the last school placement exercise. This way the necessary lessons can be learnt without the destructive politicization of the subject.
All efforts should be geared towards reducing the human interface and replace same with the appropriate software.
Some of the procedures which created serious nightmares for parents could have been obviated through online application.
With the Ghana Card details easily importable parents and even students did not have to queue up at schools to simple complete forms about their full names and dates of birth inter alia. Such stress only breeds corruption. Let us do better in managing such matters because as a country we are 68 years old. We should not continue to conduct our affairs as toddlers.
