Confirmed: Junior High Schools directed to maintain original vacation date

There is a public unrest among Ghananian teachers following Management of the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) new vacation date directive for all Basic Schools in order to conduct National Standardized Test for Primary four (4) pupils.

The directive has generated a nationwide debate and confusion among teachers especially Junior High School Teachers across the country, who were supposed to vacate on Tuesday, 7th December, 2021.

The teachers, since the directive from the Ghana Education Service, have launched a Social Media camping calling on the Ghana Education Service to withdraw their directive, stating that, they shall defy the directive if GES failures to heed to their call.

READ MORE: GES extends vacation date for Basic Schools to conduct National Standardised Test

Some of the teachers have also called on management of the Service to come clear on the directive since Junior High Schools are running an entirely different academic calendar from the Primary Schools, that’s, Semesters and Terms respectively.

In the course of the debate, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng in a Facebook post, has clarified issues on the controversial extension of the vacation date for Basic Schools.

According to him, for purposes of clarity, Junior High Schools are to maintain their original vacation dates thus, Tuesday, 7th December, 2021.

READ ALSO: Junior High School teachers vow to defy GES new vacation date directive

He further explained that, only  Primary Schools are to vacate on the 17th December, 2021 same date scheduled for the conduct of the National Standardized Test.

This means that, the vacation date for Primary Schools has been extended from 10th December, 2021 to 17th December, 2021 across the country exclusive Junior High Schools.

According to the Service, the National Standardised Test for Primary four (4) pupils/learners will be written on the 17th of December 2021.

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The Service explained that, a total of 561,595 Primary 4 Public School pupils from 15,911 schools will be writing the examination across 2,609 Examination centres with an average of 200 pupils per centre.

The Examination, according to the Ghana Education Service is designated to generate the requisite data for any needful intervention.

Meanwhile, management of the Ghana Education Service assures teachers, pupils and the general public that, they will make up for the lost vacation period in the next  academic calendar.

SOURCE: Coverghana.com.gh