Over the years they have been rumors circulating on social media news and this keeps the general public talking and even makes some heads of an institution trying to excuse my language sidelining students who have opted to study through sandwich and distance mode. There are some proven facts in this article that will serve as an eye-opener to many in society with such kind of notion.
Some people have the notion that when you are a teacher and you further your Education through the distance or sandwich education you will not be upgraded to your rightful ranks. This is a myth and needs to discard in the dustbin as soon as possible.
As far as I’m concerned I know a countable number of people who have attended distance and sandwich education and currently are in the principal superintendent rank.
The fact that the Ghana Education Service has refused to upgrade teachers from 2018 coming to 2020 doesn’t mean that teachers who attend distance or sandwich will not be upgraded. Even those who went on study leave and complete to date have not been upgraded yet in the Ghana education service.
Another myth that people talk about sandwich and distance education students is that when you further your Education through this distance or sandwich mode you will not be allowed to teach in senior high school.
Last year this issue pop up on social media and it was a letter from one of the Education directors from one district in the eastern region saying that teachers with bachelor degrees from distance and sandwich mode are not allowed to teach in senior high school.
But luckily the then Education minister Dr. Mathew Opoku issued a disclaimer to this effect through his PRO. Vincent stated that there is no directive in the Ghana Education Service which states that teachers with degrees from distance and sandwich mode should not be allowed to teach in high school.
The letter made it clear that only those with degrees in basic Education and early childhood are not allowed to teach in senior high school. I don’t know why Education directors seek the downfall of their teachers.
There is also this myth that regular students know more than those who attend distance and sandwich mode. This is a misconception to a high degree and needs to be relegated to the background.
Most research conduct by professors and doctors in the various university have refuted this misconception an example is Magagula and Ngwenga, (2004), they conducted a research to determine Students on campus and distance learner who perform more than the other because there was the same lecture that was teaching them their results came out that both sandwich and distance Students have equal performance.
They are not the only researchers that came out with this fact many researchers conducted and also came out with the same result. So why are we bring some category of Students down with our imagination.
Why is it that those heads of schools who feel that sandwich and distance Students do not perform well, allowed these students to write an exam to prove themselves?
What I can say for fact is that those who further their Education through distance may be lacking in credit hours as compare to their counterpart in the sandwich and the regular mode and this can make them not be able to pursue MPhil in their subjects areas
So anyone who wants to do MPhil and teach in an accredited university in Ghana should not do a bachelor’s degree in distance mode because the luckily hood that your credit hours will not meet the qualification of the school is high. My candid opinion.
