The 2024–2025 academic year will begin on Tuesday, September 10, 2024, when students in basic schools across will return to study.
Previously, students in the first cycle started the academic year in September, but this year is different because of COVID-19.
Beginning on October 3, 2023, the Ghana Education Service (GES) initiated the process of reverting to the previous calendar after using a transitional calendar in 2021 and 2022, where the school year stretched from January to December.
The GES reverted to the pre-COVID-19 academic calendar for basic schools following the completion of the 2022 academic year.
2024/2025 calendar
Per the 2024/2025 academic calendar released by the GES that was made available to the Daily Graphic, kindergarten (KG), primary and junior high school (JHS) pupils and students will spend a total of 15 weeks for the first term, which officially starts on September 10, 2024.
The term will end on December 18, 2024, with schools vacating on December 19, 2024.
The second term of the academic year will resume on January 7, 2025, and last till Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
After another 15 weeks of instruction, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, the students and their classmates will have a holiday.
The academic year will conclude on July 24, 2025, when schools return for a third term on Tuesday, May 6, 2025.
The third term will last for 12 weeks in total for the students.
The post-COVID schedule is here to stay, an influential insider within the GES informed the Daily Graphic.
Plans to return the second cycle calendar to the pre-COVID period were also revealed.
Disruption
From 2021 to 2022, the academic calendar for basic and senior high schools was rescheduled for January to December after schools were closed in March 2020 as part of measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Management of the Ghana Education Service wishes to inform you that the reopening date for basic schools (kindergarten, primary and junior high schools) across the country for the first term of the 2023/2024 academic year is October 3, 2023,” a memo signed and issued by the Deputy Director-General of the GES in charge of Quality and Access, Dr Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, said.
Stakeholders
The pre-COVID-19 academic calendar was reset for September to July, and educators, parents, and school administrators praised its return, calling it an improvement over the interim schedule.
Because it allowed for adequate contact hours with kids, the pre-COVID academic calendar—which they referred to as “the regular schedule”—gave for better planning for the efficient delivery of education to children in the nation.
They added that starting the academic year in the third quarter of the year would give them the chance to buy stationery and other learning supplies.
SHS level
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates (SC) in May/June is not open to Ghana due to the incomplete reset of senior high school calendars.
For the third year in a row, candidates in their last year of senior high school are taking the WASSCE SC in Ghana only.
But the other four WAEC members, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, have already switched back to the May/June schedule for WASSCE school applicants.
Source: Graphic.com.gh