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First-year senior high school (SHS) students who are awaiting their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results will report to school on December 4, 2023.
The date, which is for both single and double track students, was contained in the 2023/2024 academic calendar for pre-tertiary institutions in the country released by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Meanwhile, Forms Two and Three students under the single track system are to report to school today, November 1.
Per the transitional calendar for double track students, Form One students will be in school from December 4, 2023, to March 5, 2024.
They will, however, return to school on May 13, 2024, until July 9, 2024.
They are due to go on break again on July 10, 2024, and reopen on September 3 up to November 15, 2024, when the academic year ends.
On the other hand, single track students will report to school on December 4 until March 15, 2024, and go on vacation from March 16, 2024, to May 2, 2024.
The second semester will begin from May 3, 2024, until August 28, 2024, when the academic calendar will end.
Form Two and Form Three students under the single track system will report to school today until March 5, 2024, and begin the end of the first semester break from March 6 to May 2, 2024.
They will return to school on May 3, 2024, to begin the second semester up to August 28, 2024 to end the academic year.
However, Form Two students under the double track system will have to wait until March 8, 2024, to begin the first semester until May 9, 2024, to end the semester.
The second semester will begin on July 12, 2024, until November 15, 2024, when the academic year would come to an end.
It is significant to note that the Christmas break will be from December 21, 2023, to January 2, 2024, while the Easter break will be between March 29 and April 16, 2024.
Form Three students under the double track will also begin their first semester on January 3, 2024, to March 28, 2024, to end the first semester.
Their second semester begins from April 17 until August 23, 2024.
However, for Form Three students under the single track system, the first semester begins today, November 1, 2023, and ends on March 5, 2024, while the second semester is from May 3, 2024 to August 28, 2024, when they will complete school.
Per the calendar, basic schools will be in session for 12 weeks from October 3 to December 22, 2023.
They will go on vacation from December 23, 2023 to January 8, 2024.
They will then resume for the second term for 14 weeks from January 9, 2024 to April 11, 2024.
They will go on vacation from April 12 to 29, 2024.
The students will return to school on April 30 for the third term which will last for 13 weeks, during which period Form Three students will write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in July 2024.
However, Form One and Form Two students will be in school from April 30 to July 25, 2024.
In all, the students are to have a total of 39 weeks of contact.
Asked how feasible the calendar is, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr Eric Nkansah, gave an assurance that everything would go on smoothly as scheduled.
He said the GES had put in place a strategy that would fast-track the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), hence the December 4 reporting date for the first-year students was plausible.
However, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, said the calendar would require a lot of explanation for parents to understand.
For instance, he said, it was not proper for those that would be going to Form Two under the transitional calendar to report to school on March 8, 2024, when Form One students under the single track calendar would have started their academic year today, November 1, 2023.
“So they (Form Two students under the transition calendar) would start their academic year in March next year, while those in the single track are starting theirs next month,” he said.
In the case of Form One students reporting to school in December, he said that was possible since the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results would be ready in two weeks time, after which they would be released and the students placed in their schools of choice.
With regard to Form Three students, he said, there were different dates for the completion of the academic year under both calendars.
He wondered why the academic year ended on different dates for the single and double tracks.
Explaining further, he said the Form One students would be spending more days in school than at home, which was good.
For his part, the Chairman of the Madina, Abokobi, Adenta District of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, Christian Yaw Adinkra, wondered how feasible it was for Form One students to report to school on December 4 and end the term around March 2024.
