Push Out or Drop Out? Taking a Critical Look at the Poor Performance and Drop-Out of Students of the JSS/JHS Programme in Ghana

Abstract

In 1974, new educational reforms aimed at laying a solid educational foundation for children were launched in Ghana. Amongst other things, the reforms recommended the establishment of a three-year Junior Secondary School (JSS) system later renamed the Junior High School system which sought to provide more practical educational skills to students. It aimed to be proactive to the needs of Ghanaians by introducing pre-technical and pre-vocational skills to empower pupils with skills to work with after completion of the JHS program if they are not academically inclined to go further through the Senior Secondary/Senior High School system. After several years of implementation, the success rates of students from the JSS/JHS system have been abysmally poor. The situation is even more abysmal in the rural areas of Ghana where most schools lack basic teaching and learning tools. This paper, from a study of some JSS/JHS schools in some rural and urban settings in Ghana, takes a critical look at some of the factors in this educational system that has pushed many pupils to drop out of the school system hence making the system ineffective and incapable of meeting its intended purpose.