Less than 50% pass BECE; GES says it is normal
Concerns have been raised about what parents say is the awful performance of pupils in recent Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE), but the Ghana Education Service (GES) thinks otherwise.
Reports indicate that over half of the candidates who wrote the BECE this year failed to qualify for admission into senior high schools (SHSs) and technical institutes (TIs). They could not meet the required score of between aggregates six and 30.
The Daily Graphic quoted statistics provided by the National Co-ordinator of the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System, Mr Samuel Oppong as saying that 176,128 candidates, representing 46.93 per cent of the 375,280 candidates who sat for the 2011 BECE met the criteria for selection and placement into SHSs and TIs.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of Ghana Education Service, Charles Parker-Allotey averred in an interview with Joy News that this year’s result is an improvement over what pertained in recent years.
“I insist that the situation has improved gradually over time. Over the last three years we’ve seen better performance.”
His comments sought to downplay worries that there was a mass failure of pupils in this year’s examinations, as he assured parents that there is no cause for alarm, adding the trend is normal.
Mr Parker-Allotey noted that candidates who did not qualify can rewrite the exams or go into apprenticeship training.
He reiterated: “It has come to our notice that less than 50 percent passed this year’s placement exercise. I want to put it on record that this is a normal trend; there is no cause for alarm yet.”
But the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) says this is just a reflection of poor teaching and learning and low investment in education by stakeholders.
Leslie Tetteh, the Coordinator of the GNECC, further noted: “The question is how many opportunities exist within the current system that we have to absorb the over 40 percent of candidates who may not qualify to enter our normal senior high schools.”
Last year, 172,359 out of 350,888 candidates who wrote the BECE qualified for placement into SHSs and TIs. The figure represented about 49 per cent of the number of candidates.
Source Myjoyonline Ghana
Category: Education
