Educationist ,Daniel Fenyi has raised concern about what he believes to be deliberate efforts to reduce the quality of education in Ghana, attributing the decline to intentional policies implemented over the years.
Speaking on the Happy Morning Show with Kwadwo Safah-Danquah on Monday, October 21, Mr. Fenyi criticized the actions of political leaders, stating that they have the knowledge to improve the system but choose otherwise.
He argued that many of these leaders have studied in countries with top-tier education systems and know what it takes to enhance the quality of education. However, they intentionally avoid making improvements because an intellectually empowered citizenry would scrutinize policies and demand accountability.
He believes that if Ghanaians become more analytical, over 90% of politicians would lose relevance, as they currently rely on short-term gestures such as cash handouts and last-minute infrastructure projects to secure votes.
He dismissed claims that the challenges within the Ghana Education Service (GES) stem from the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy. According to him, the real problem began with the government’s decision to eliminate the cut-off point for SHS admission in 2017. He said this allowed all students, regardless of performance, to progress to SHS, leading to the introduction of the double-track system to accommodate the increased enrollment.
He explained that some politicians deliberately altered the SHS entry system to create a false narrative about the impact of the Free SHS policy. He stated that after introducing Free SHS, these politicians decided to remove the entry grade restrictions, making it seem as though the policy had drastically increased enrollment. According to him, the sudden rise in student numbers was used to justify the introduction of the double-track system, leading parents to believe that the Free SHS policy was responsible for the surge in admissions.
However, he argued that the increase in enrollment had nothing to do with Free SHS, but was a result of manipulating the admission criteria to manufacture the impression of high demand.
He revealed that in recent years, the government has discouraged the repetition of students at any level, citing financial constraints. Since the government fully funds education, it avoids allowing students to repeat class, as this would mean covering their expenses for an additional year.
Additionally, he alleged that the government interferes with the conduct of external examinations. According to Mr. Fenyi, Ghana has been administering its own exams instead of participating in the standard West African regional assessments, making official reports of high performance unreliable. He described instances where students receive exam results for subjects they did not even attempt, suggesting a deeper manipulation of the examination process.
He pointed to the recent release of BECE results as a glaring example of these irregularities. While the creative arts paper had not been fully marked at the time of release, all students’ results showed that subject as pending. Mr. Fenyi claimed that even students who missed the paper altogether still had the subject marked as pending, further underscoring the artificial nature of the country’s education statistics.
