The Director-General of the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) says the Education Ministry’s initiative of affiliating Grade C schools to Grade A schools is good.

Dr Mike Boakye-Yiadom said though that it might not be the best panacea as there are more urgent issues that need to be addressed.

He highlighted issues such as inadequate infrastructure, inadequate teaching and learning materials, and feeding-related problems with the Free Senior High School program. Nonetheless, "the issue of affiliation should not be discarded," he said.

The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, after a consultative meeting in Kumasi with the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), revealed that the Ministry will introduce a policy to associate all lower-performing senior high schools with grade A schools.

The initiative, he explained, is to imbibe the principles of the grade A schools into the grade C schools to improve their academic performance.

Following the announcement of the policy, some education experts have described the policy as a lazy planner's approach to resolving the issue of quality of training at the country's senior high schools.

But the Director-General of the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration explains that mentorship and coaching are great enhancers of school leadership and, if done well, are likely to promote exemplary leadership in pre-tertiary education.

Additionally, he’s convinced grade A schools are recording good grades and making grade C schools tap into the experiences and culture of such schools would be a good idea.

"How do these grade A schools achieve their successes in the midst of the challenges? How do we create an intentional platform for grade C schools to learn from grade A schools? I believe this initiative may answer the question,” he stated.

Dr. Boakye-Yiadom further suggested that critics of the policy should wait for details of the initiative and adequately analyse it before it is condemned.