From Sebastian R. Freiku, Kumasi
Five Islamic Senior High Schools (SHS) in Ghana presented 74 candidates at the 2016/2017 West Africa Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) Examinations in Oral Arabic.
The schools include; Al-Azhariya Islamic Senior High School at Old-Tafo, Sakafia (SHS) at Ayigya, both in Kumasi and Hamisa (SHS) in Madina, Accra. The others are Mercy SHS at Japan Motors near Madina in Accra and Hambariya (SHS) in Tamale.
The President of Federation of Islamic Senior High Schools in Ghana (FISHSIG), Sheikh Mohammed Kamil Mohammed, said Arabic as an examinable subject in Ghana has been a long standing one since the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary and General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advance levels era.
“Ghana only stopped doing it when the country introduced the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) which was a national examination”, he explained.
The President of FISHSIG said since the introduction of WASSCE, Arabic has been part of examinable subjects being offered by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in the other West African member countries, but efforts to bring it back as an examinable subject at the SSCE or WASSCE level in Ghana had proven futile since 2000, until the just ended WASSCE.
Sheikh Mohammed Kamil, who is also the Deputy National Imam of Ahlul-Sunna Wal Jamaa, in charge of Education and Da’awa and Director of Al-Azhariya Islamic Schools (Basic and SHS) in Kumasi, disclosed that more candidates were also expected to offer Arabic in the 2017/2018 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
“The Ghana Education Service (GES) inspected some of our Schools, including Al-Azhariya SHS and Islamic SHS in Kumasi, as well as others in Tamale and found them satisfactory in the teaching of Arabic as a subject, hence the approval given by GES,” he added.
The FISHSIG President disclosed that there are Arabic teachers already teaching the subject in the basic schools who are employed and paid by the state since 1987.
“So, one may ask; if the government has been paying teachers to teach the subject all these years and have now decided to make the teaching and learning of the subject more effective by making it part of the examinable subjects for students who choose to offer the subject just like French, then what is the big deal about it”, he lamented.
He commended the Baraka Policy Institute (BPI), a Research Think Tank in Islamic Education, the offices of the National Chief Imam and the Ahlul Sunna Wal Jamaa for their efforts at getting approval for students in Islamic Senior High Schools to write WASSCE this year 2017.
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