Introduction of semester policy to increase absenteeism at basic level – All Teachers Alliance

General Secretary of the All Teachers Alliance, Albert Dadson Amoah, posits that the introduction of the semester system at the basic school level will see a rise in learner fatigue, ultimately leading to a high rate of absenteeism.

With students at the basic school level having a short attention span, the teacher argues it will have a bad effect on students and the education system. “It will be bad to introduce the semester system at the basic school level. It is a terrible idea for students at the basic school level to be in school for 6 months. Even in Universities, a semester lasts for 4 months. Students at the Kindergarten level especially have a short attention span and the semester system is a bad idea for them.”

Citing the Junior High School as a caution tale in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Albert Dadson Amoah said, “They started with the semester system at the Junior High level and the students stopped coming to school. Learner’s fatigue set in and because the students were tired from the long learning hours, they started absenting themselves from school.”

According to him, the decision to change the trimester policy to semester is neither backed by a policy document nor science and data. “Before you change any policy it must be backed by science and data and it also has to be because the existing policy is ineffective. But you will see the GES is changing this policy not because the trimester is ineffective.”

Teachers at the basic education level are agitating against the new semester system introduced by the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the 2022 academic year.

The GES announced the new semester system last week when it rolled out the 2022 academic calendar from Kindergarten to SHS3.

According to the calendar, KG, primary and JHS schools are to re-open on 18th January 2022. All students will spend 20 weeks each per semester to complete the session.

The first semester beginning from 18th January 2022 will end 9th June 2022 with the second semester starting from 26th July 2022 to 16th December 2022.