The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, (GES), Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, has explained that the four-year Senior High School under the new educational reform is intended to adequately prepare students before they write their final examination. "The large number of students going for 'second world war' is enough proof that under the three-year programme, the candidates are not well-prepared before writing the final examinations," he stressed. Mr Bannerman-Mensah, who was throwing more light on the new educational reform in Accra, explained that it would, therefore, make the students well-grounded, especially in the core subjects. He, however, conceded that there were other factors aside the limited time for the adequate preparation of the students for the final examination. Mr Bannerman-Mensah also identified some of the factors which informed the decision to increase secondary education by one more year as lack of qualified teachers and low teacher-student contact hours. According to him, apart from the four years at the Senior Secondary School (SSS) level, the government had also reduced the number of subjects offered at the JSS level from 10 to six as a way of improving teaching and learning at the basic level. He therefore appealed to all stakeholders in education to support the new reform for a better future for the country. The Director-General particularly appealed to parents to support their wards, adding that studies showed that students with good parental support do better in class. Touching on the inclusion of kindergarten (KG) education in the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), Mr Bannerman-Mensah said it was part of the new approach by the government to improve the standard of education in the country. He was hopeful that parents would see the need to send their children to school and that children would develop love for education. On infrastructure for the KGs, Mr Bannerman-Mensah quoted the Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Professor Dominic Fobih, as saying that currently, 11,228 KG classrooms were in good condition with 6,046 needing rehabilitation while 3,609 basic schools did not have any KGs. He explained that in areas where there were no KG buildings, the District Director of Education together with the district assemblies were setting up KGs by converting available community centres and churches into interim KG classrooms. Source: Junior Graphic