The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has chided the Ghana Education Service (GES) for postponing the reopening date for final year students in senior high schools.

GES in a press release on Tuesday, April 6, 2021, announced that it had postponed the reopening date for final year students to May 5, 2021.

It explained that “this is to give the form 3 students an uninterrupted instructional period till they write their final examination.”

Although GES has apologized to parents and affected students for the delay in communicating the directive, it has come under heavy criticisms from various stakeholders in the education sector as some final year students had already reported to school.

Commenting on the issue, NUGS in a statement signed by its President, Isaac Jay Hyde, and dated Thursday, April 8, 2021, described the activities of GES as “shambolic” adding that “the level of ineptitude and gross inconsistencies by management of GES cannot be overemphasized.”

Chronicling a number of times GES had to alter the academic year, NUGS said GES cannot continuously make parents and students pay for their “incompetence”

“This is certainly not the first time an unfortunate decision like this has been announced at the last minute by GES.

“GES recently inconvenienced Form One students and their parents by changing their reporting date from 10th March to 18th March 2021.

“They have repeated this canker of an attitude coupled with a very late notice to form three students who have a limited time to prepare adequately for their final exams.

“In fact, since 2018, the Ghana Education Service has changed reopening dates eight (8) times, leaving both parents and students to suffer the brunt of their decisions” parts of the statement read.

NUGS further charged GES to “wake up from their slumber” and effectively discharge its duties.

“We support any initiative that advances the cause of education and eliminates barriers to educational growth of every Ghanaian child. Beyond brilliant policies is also the need for proper implementation in order for us to achieve the maximum benefits of such initiatives.

“The GES has fallen short in recent times. The leadership of GES must wakeup from their slumber. The recent happenings at the GES does not only affect the Ghanaian students competitiveness at the global stage +ut also threatens the success chalked over the years within the educational front.

“It is our hope this level of incompetence has not come to stay,” the statement read.