BECE candidates to register for re-sit in September

The registration of the first batch of private candidates for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) re-sit is scheduled for September 2014, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, Minister of Education, said on Monday.

The candidates would, thus, sit for the examinations in February 2015.

Speaking at the opening of the 2014 National Education Sector Annual Review in Accra, Professor Opoku Agyemang said the Ministry of Education and the West Africa Examination Council has initiated discussions, and a road-map was being developed for the BECE candidates.

The four-day meeting is on the theme: “Efficiency: Key to Sustainable Quality Education beyond 2015” and it is being attended by stakeholders in the educational sector including development partners and non-governmental organizations.

Stakeholders would review the performance of the sector over the past year, discuss key issues and priorities and make recommendations for the ensuing year as well as the way forward on efficient use of resources.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the annual review marked the time set aside to strengthen the commitment to the joint responsibility and partnership between government and all stakeholders in the education sector.

The objective is to dialogue on and discuss critical sector issues that should lead to the translation of threats and weaknesses into opportunities and strength.

Commenting on the performance in the education sector, Prof Opoku Agyemang said the sector in the past year had made strides at sustaining the improvements in education.

These could be seen in the steady improvements in education indicators such as enrolment rates, completion rates, girl’s participation, and increase in access for children with special education needs.

She said latest data shows that enrollment and access to education continue to improve from kindergarten (KG) to university with over 1.6 million children currently enrolled in KG, 4.1 million pupils enrolled at primary level, and 1.5 million pupils enrolled in junior high school.

At the senior secondary school level, enrolment has increased from 36.8 per cent to 43.8 per cent while enrolment in the tertiary institutions is now over 280,000, registering an increase of eight percent over the previous academic year.

There is three per cent increase in enrollment at the KG level, 2.3 percent increase at primary level, and one percent increase at JHS level.

Prof. Opoku-Agyeman said a number of initiatives were also introduced during the year under review to promote efficient management of resources and value for money.

These included the setting up of committees that were mandated to discuss and provide recommendations for addressing critical issues like enforcing zero tolerance for teacher absenteeism in basic school and improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science.

The committee also conducted the teacher rationalization and redeployment of excess teachers to areas with teacher shortages as well as improving human resource management and practices to ensure efficiency in management and utilization.

“I suggest we all reflect on the theme chosen for the meeting while we subject the presentations and discussions on the various interventions to a high level discourse.

“As we all reflect and contribute to the debate of the post 2015 agenda, I suggest that the post 2015 agenda target educated persons whose values include justice, moderation, care for the needy and who abhor extremism, homophobia and intolerance,” Prof Opoku Agyemang said.

In a related development, the Education Minister presented six Nissan Pick- Ups and a number of motor bicycles to the Monitoring unit of the Ministry of Education.