Adutwum introduces new uniform for public basic school students

The Ministry of Education (MoE) as part of an effort to rebrand public education has introduced a a new set of uniforms for basic school students in the country, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has said.

 “You see, you don’t see brown and yellow, we are rebranding public schools. No brown and yellow, blue and white, and we are changing the uniforms too. This is President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia’s Ghana.

We have begun the transformation. There’s no reason why we should not. Ghana deserves better, and we’re going to give them better, something that we can all be proud of.

Contrary to critics who say he has abandoned basic schools, Dr Adutwum insists this isn’t the case. He envisions a day when parents will beg to enrol their children in basic public schools because he is setting things right.

So they will say, we will give you credit, you have done well with Senior High School, but you have abandoned basic schools, children are sitting under trees and you talking about drones.https://www.myjoyonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ADU-BASIC-SCHOOLS.mp3

To them, I have a response, I look forward to a day when parents will line up in front of the school and beg to enroll their children, that is the day and it will soon come and it has begun under Nana Akufo Addo,” he said at an event.

However, the initiative has sparked controversy, with the Deputy Ranking Member of the Education Committee in Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak, condemning it as a misplaced priority.

“Invariably, most of the government attention has been directed towards the free Senior High School policy and its implementation. As we speak, I know for a fact that capitation grants, which are the grants that allow us to say that public education is free because these are the grants that the head teachers of the basic school used to organise activities like cultural activities, sports activities, are in arrears for eight terms

We even have a situation where only 65% of textbooks based on the new curriculum which came into effect in September 2019, have been distributed to our public basic schools across the country.

We have more than 1.3 million people in the country who have no access to furniture and so why will government in spite of these glaring and debilitating challenges seek to spend resources in rebranding our public basic schools by introducing a new uniform,” he noted.

This marks the second school uniform change in the Akufo-Addo Administration, following the 2019 alteration by the then Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, now the Energy Minister.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) reacting to the introduction of a new school uniform for Junior High School (JHS) students said the students are expected to start wearing the new school uniform from the 2019/2020 academic year.

Former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa speaking to the press in Accra on Thursday said the new uniform is primarily to distinguish the JHS pupils from their peers at the primary level.

The new uniform was to replace the old uniform, locally referred to as Konkonte and nkate nkwan (groundnut soup) worn by pupils at the basic level in public schools, which was introduced over 30 years ago by the government.