Former Education Minister and Bosomtwe MP, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has called for a deliberate national strategy to create more high-performing Category A senior high schools(SHSs), arguing that government must respond to the strong demand for such institutions under the Free SHS system.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Dr Adutwum said the increasing pressure on Category A schools during the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) reflects parents’ preference for schools perceived to offer stronger academic outcomes and better facilities.
“We must be intentional to create more Category A schools,” he said.
According to him, simply establishing new schools without deliberately developing them into high-performing institutions will not adequately address the challenge.
“We must give them the resources because the parents want Category A schools,” he said, stressing the need for sustained investment in infrastructure, teaching and learning facilities.
Dr Adutwum said Ghana has the capacity to develop more Category A schools, but this would require a conscious policy rather than an approach that allows schools to improve by chance.
“During President Akufo-Addo, we can create more Category A schools but it must be intentional, not by accident,” he said.
He also pointed to an initiative undertaken during his tenure as Education Minister, in which high-performing schools were encouraged to work closely with schools that needed academic and institutional support.
Dr. Adutwum recalled a policy initiated during his tenure to associate lower-performing SHSs with high-performing Category A schools, with the objective of transferring effective academic and management practices to schools that have struggled to achieve similar results.
He further argued that deliberately spreading the practices of high-performing schools could gradually expand the number of institutions capable of competing at the highest level.
The lawmaker recounted taking the then headmistress of Wesley Girls’ High School, Mrs Betty Djokoto, to some schools as part of an affiliation arrangement, where she interacted with teachers and students and shared practices that had contributed to the school’s performance.
“We took Wesley Girls headmistress, Mrs Djokoto, to some schools,” he said, explaining that the exercise was aimed at sensitising and educating the schools on effective academic and administrative practices.
He said exchange programmes were also organised between some schools, while an affiliation arrangement brought about four schools into partnership with Opoku Ware School in Kumasi.
According to him, the leadership of the high-performing schools played a crucial role in making the initiative effective.
“With this affiliation, we had about four schools to Opoku Ware,” he said.
“The headmaster played a critical role and it was effective,” he added.
His comments are particularly relevant to the current debate over senior high school placement, amid intense competition for places in highly sought-after Category A schools.
Dr Adutwum’s position places emphasis on expanding the quality of Category A schools rather than simply increasing their numbers, with investment, school-to-school partnerships and deliberate institutional development forming part of the proposed approach.
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