THE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CONUNDRUM

PICTURE OF A GIRL ATTENDING A NON-FORMAL SCHOOL
Courtesy: photographersdirect.com

Poor planning,
Half-baked,
Classroom blocks still under construction
Almost time for new admissions
Tents have been placed on standby
In this mess of a sticky situation.


The saga of senior high school
Education still does continue.
Teething problems
And Adhoc measures
On show for all to see.


Was the three year duration
For secondary education really that terrible?
We charged in like bulls in china shops,
Breaking everything in sight,
Slashing and burning as though possessed
By the devil himself.


Now there we sit staring at ticking
Clocks as though waiting for an imminent explosion.
Poorly planned and always unprepared,
At the eleventh hour, trying our best to save our blushes
And splashing paint over our scandalous
Preparations and weak foundations.


All projects have cycles,
In this day and age of softwares such as
Microsoft project and others,
Gone are the days of delayed projects,
Over-billing and other problems
That constrained the construction industries
The entire world over.


How come the Armed Forces have
Been placed on standby with tents?
Provisions being made for temporary shelter
In the event that structures for usage by
Newly admitted students reporting to senior
Secondary schools within the country in
The next month are not completed on time.


What a shame,
Incomprehensible,
Unfathomable
Incompetence rears its ugly head again,
Roaming free in the streets of Accra,
While people line streets welcoming it
As though it were a messiah of some sort.


When push comes to shove,
They plan on placing students in tents
Like the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,
Like the nomads roaming the sands of the Gobi desert.


I admit, these are just standby measures,
They probably might not be needed anyway
Bu the mere fact that we even comsider this
As an option leaves much to be desired.
Why were we in a rush?
Was the three year secondary education cycle really that bad?
We could have left the three year cycle as it was
And slowly phased it out when all structures
For the four year secondary education cycle were ready.


Three years or four,
Duration makes no difference.
When it’s all said and done,
Quality is what matters most.
With proper planning,
Well trained teachers,
Adequate textbooks and other necessary logistics,
Duration will only play a very minimal role
In this secondary education cliffhanger.


Imagine studying under a tent in the scorching sun,
Then again, who knows?
Those tents just might come equipped with
Air conditioning and Jacuzzis too.
Imagine tables and chairs neatly arranged under a tent,
Imagine students having tents as dormitories,
Imagine chop boxes and trunks sitting in tents,
Brothers imagine,
Oh my people imagine,
Only in Ghana can you imagine this.


I wish I were telling fibs and tales,
I wish it were some rumour
That surfaced in the slums of Accra
One evening among a group of idle youth.
This is neither rumour nor fib,
Provisions are actually being made for this eventuality.


Why did we commit to something when
The structures were not yet in place?
What was our hurry in making this switch?
Was the previous model really that bad?
Or was it all about tricks
Smoke screens, mirrors
And political charades?
I guess in my country,
Half-baked is the new smart,
For tents threaten to rear their heads in our secondary schools.


It’s way past time,
We keep moving around in circles
As though we’re bobbing for apples at the county fair.
Chasing shadows like some modern day fashion
Tripping on our shoelaces in the process.
You mistake laughter from the gallery
And reckless acts by so called foot soldiers
As an endorsement of your tenure.
Please wakeup,
Be up and doing,
You’ve become a laughing stock for quite a while now.