By the mid 1980s, Ghana’s educational system was in sharp decline following a period of protracted poor economic performance in the 1980s (Educational Expansion and Access in Ghana: A Review of 50 Years of Challenge and Progress Dr Kwame Akyeampong, Centre for International Education University of Sussex, UK).
Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Jerry John Rawlings introduced the Post-Colonial Junior and Senior Secondary School. In 1987, Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, leading the PNDC, set up a committee, choosing Evans Anform as the leader, to reform the educational system of Ghana.
Its primary objective was to expedite the quality of education, make basic education free and compulsory, and to reduce the unnecessarily long duration of period in the educational system: from 17years of pre-university education to 12years- thus, 6yrs of primary education, 3yrs of Junior Secondary School, and 3yrs of Senior High School, which is still incumbent in the current education system of Ghana.
In May 1992, under the PNDC Law 279, Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings established the University Of Developmental Studies (UDS), Tamale-Ghana, to “blend the academic work with that of the community in order to provide constructive interaction between the two for the total development of Northern Ghana, in particular, and the country as a whole (http://www.uds.edu.gh/about-us/history-and-facts. Retrieved October 10, 2018).
The university was initiated with a research, and practically-packed curriculum, to produce effective, efficient, and skilled graduates, who would facilitate development, mainly in the Northern sector of Ghana, rural areas, and the nation as whole.
The principal objective of the University is to address and find solutions to the environmental problems and socio-economic deprivations that had long exemplified the Northern, and Rural areas of Ghana.
In the year 2000, before Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings left office under the 4th Republic, he instituted the Educational Trust-Fund Act 581, to support the poor.
Among the numerous objectives of the Act was to provide finance to supplement the provision of education at all levels of the Government by providing support to the Education Ministry in the construction, and maintenance of educational facilities, providing financial support to the scholarship secretariat for the grants of scholarships to gifted but needy students for studies in secondary-cycle and accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana, etc.
As an educational institution that heavily believes in providing education for all, especially talented but needy students, we deemed it necessary to commemorate our father, ex-president, and our brave leader Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings with this article that aims to remind Ghanaians of the impact he made on the educational system of Ghana. With this, we say Rest in Power, His Excellency, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.