The Minister of Planning, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour says government will weigh in on the 3-year, 4-year Senior High School programme to determine which one will best be of an advantage to students in excelling in their exams.

His comments follow when ISSER presented a report indicating that the 4-year SHS system gave better outcomes of results than the 3-year SHS.

Speaking at the launch of Ghana Social Development Outlook 2016 at the University of Ghana's Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) on Wednesday, September 27, Prof Gyan-Baffour said government’s decision will be determined based on what the public say.

According to him, government will make sure students spend exactly three years in school that is why the first-year SHS students went to school starting in the academic year but if the public insists the 3-year system should be reverted to four years based on its quality, then government can weigh in on that option and implement it for the benefit of all.

This he said will take government either 1 or 2 years to study the outcome of students’ results before they finally decide on that.

He further indicated that money will not be a problem especially since government has rolled out the Free SHS programme to benefit every child in Ghana to be enrolled in school although people have raised concerns about it if SHS becomes four years again.

In his explanation, he said the premise of government’s idea of Free SHS is that money shouldn’t be an infraction to the education of children so whether three or four years, students will still enjoy Free SHS.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration introduced the 4-year SHS programme in 2007 based on research.

The new system, however, lasted three academic years as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) assumed power in 2009 and reverted to the 3-year system.

Since then, there have been series of debates whether the policy should be reverted or not.