A non-governmental organization has expressed its disappointment at Cabinet's decision to revert the SHS duration from four years to three. A statement signed by Mr. James Kofi Annan, Executive Director of the Challenging Heights said the timing of the decision is bad. “We believe that by the decision of changing the SHS system the Ministry of Education appears to be heading toward producing more street children, street hawkers, and child laborers and this will potentially increase the number of the over 1million children who are currently find themselves in difficult circumstances”. “It is not tenable to take such a monumental decision concerning an important sector like Education just one month before the commencement of the new academic year. Secondly, there is no syllabi review, textbooks reviews, and no national orientation to transition the students to this new system”, the statement added. Mr. James Kofi Annan accused government officials of taking such hasty decisions on education because their children are not in public schools and do not appreciate the needs of such children. According to him, there was mass failure in the 1993 SSCE final exams largely because the 1987 education reform program was not pursued appropriately. He advised government to improve upon the quality of education now that the decision to revert to three years had already been taken. By: Dorcas Efe Mensah