Govt abandons ‘rejected’ semester system: Reverts to three terms for KG – JHS

Ministry of education announces new academic calendar for public schools

Government makes U-turn abandons Semester for Trimester system

Government has issued a new school calendar barely a week after the resumption of the academic year for pre-primary and public primary schools across the country.

The new calendar principally announces the reinstatement of the three-term system and by that, the suspension of a two-semester that was supposed to be implemented.

The initial calendar stated that the current academic year from kindergarten to Junior High School “was to be based on the Semester system.”

The January 21, 2022, statement continued that the Ministry has received representation from a stakeholders demanding the reinstatement of the trimester system.

“After further consultation on the issue, the Honourable Minister for Education ha directed that the calendar for Kindergarten to Junior High School for the current academic year should revert to the Trimester system.

The dates for the new academic year are as follows:

Third Term
13th September – 22nd December, 2022

Some of the unions that opposed the introduction of Semester-based academic calendar were;

Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT)

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT),

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana

Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU)

In a press release by the Unions in Education, which includes the above listed unions, they called for an immediate reversal as the policy change should have attracted a wide consultation.

They also argued that the decision was an imposition by the GES on major stakeholders.

“The Unions in Education sees the decision taken to unilaterally change the school calendar into a semester one as arbitrary and an imposition by the GES on major stakeholders of which the Unions in Education are part,” they said in the joint press release.

However, the deputy minister of education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, insisted that the newly introduced academic calendar will not be changed.

“The calendar is efficient and we are not going to change it. It is what we are going to work with. It will stand the test of time; it will be beneficial and useful to everyone at the end of the day,” he stated.