News which broke last week that about 700 students who had been admitted at the Central University College to pursue various courses have had their admissions revoked is not a pleasant one. It is clear that Central University is doing all it can to mitigate the impact of the decision which was taken by the National Accreditation Board. Listening to some of the affected students, one get the impression that some do not know what to do next. Yes, we can blame the Central University for admitting students; knowing very well that they do not qualify. We can even say that it serves the affected students right for “playing” with their studies while in school; and that this will be a deterrent to other students who are “playing” with their studies. But for me the issue goes beyond a skewed way of apportioning blame. The issue demands a critical assessment of the problem from its roots. You might be very familiar with the saying: ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ (GIGO). That seem to be the problem we are in. We are in a country where a student from the Senior High School needs a particular grade in a subject before he/she can enter the tertiary institution. Meanwhile no such requirement is needed when a pupil is moving from the Junior High School to the Senior High School. Yes, there are no regulations at this level. Any pupil who sits the BECE gets to go to the Senior High School, whether or not they met the requirement. And this has become possible “kind courtesy” of the ever-increasing private Senior High Schools. Do the GES have any standards for establishing a Senior High School? Do they monitor the quality of students these private institutions admit? If these schools are admitting students who had 8’s and 9’s in mathematics and English then how do we expect them to make A’s and B’s overnight. It’s simply a case of what goes around comes around. GIGO. I am not trying to be cynical but could the negligence at the high school level be attributed to the numbers? Do i hear the GES saying “oh you know they are too many down here and regulating things will be too difficult for us so let’s just leave it for a later stage”? If that is the case then we are using the cheap approach in trying to tackle the problem. It’s common sense that you tackle a problem from the root and not from the top, hence the wisdom in the Akan proverb; “dua a enya w’ani a ebewo no yetu ase3 na y’entwa so”. There is another interesting scenario. A student who was admitted under this conditional admission programme happens to be one of the best, if not the best, in his class. Do we withdraw such a student? That will be sheer backwardness. I think that what the Central University is trying to do is to make “something” out of a people who the educational system has declared “nothing”. This nation has to redesign its strategy on education. It is easy for a child to comprehend simple mathematics and build on it than to force it in his head at a later stage. And if we are not able to catch them young, then I see the conditional admission as a very creative way of making geniuses out of nonentities. As it stands now it looks to me as if the people entrusted with education in this country have either gone to sleep or stoking up the mass failures we see. Kwaku Botwe