The Ghana Education Service (GES) has revealed that only about 60 percent of students who write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) make it into Senior High Schools (SHS).
The remaining 40 percent either go into informal vocational or technical training or learn a trade while others simply idle.
The Acting Director of the GES, Charles Aheto Tsegah on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday stated that is outfit is still working on a plan to enable the students who do not pass the BECE to re-sit the examination.
“Those who want to go into Senior High Schools by all means, there will be an opportunity for them to re-sit and then get a chance to go to secondary school,” he remarked.
He indicated that basic education in Ghana equips students who are unable to make it into SHS, to survive after Junior High School.
The acting GES boss mentioned that basic school students are given the requisite literacy and numeracy skills as well as “some life skills to go manage with their lives in the future.”
He stressed that the 40 percent who do not pass, “in terms of their communication skills, they still have something to go by and they demonstrate other competencies. It’s a 50-50 situation.”
A former Director of Education, Michael Nsowah on his part criticized the BECE concept saying, it terminates the future of students who are unable to pass their examination.
“It was supposed to be terminal and continuing because if you don’t get admission into the next level, it was supposed to be terminal and that was the unfortunate aspect of it.
“The children are around the ages of 14 and 15 and they are not supposed to work so if that was the idea, then the original concept was not right,” he explained.
He acknowledged that basic education in Ghana has not been able to achieve its main objective of vocationalizing education and developing psychomotor skills.
A total of 422,946 candidates from 12, 562 public and private Junior High Schools (SHS) across the country are expected to sit for the 2014 BECE starting Monday.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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