GES 'worried' about poor BECE performance in Northern Region

Reverend Kofi Amofa Odaatu, the Northern Regional Examinations Officer of Ghana Education Service (GES), has expressed worry over continuous falling standards of Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in public schools in the region.

He said for the past ten years, public basic schools in the Northern Region with North East and Savannah Regions inclusive, have not performed up to 50 per cent pass rate in the BECE.

The persistent poor performance was blamed on early registration of students, wholesale promotion, inadequate supervision, insufficient parental control and growing indiscipline on the part of students, teachers and parents.

Rev Odaatu made this known during a presentation on BECE performance from 2014 to 2018 at a stakeholder accountability forum on education on Monday in Tamale.

The meeting was organized by Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) in collaboration with the Northern Regional Youth Network and funded by OXFAM.

Students, youth networks and groups, staff of GES and several other stakeholders participated in the session that aimed at eliciting ideas on how to help improve falling standards of education in the Northern Region.

From 2014 to 2018, the Region performed below the national average, recording 19.56 per cent pass in 2015 and 37.24 per cent pass in 2018, as the lowest and highest performance within the periods.

According to the statistics presented by Rev Odaatu, in 2015, out of 36,536 students who sat for the examination, only 7,147, representing, 19.56 per cent passed within aggregate 6 to 30.

In 2018, with 42,623 students who sat for the BECE, only 15,874 representing 37.24 per cent passed within aggregate 6 to 30.

Rev Odaatu urged parents to help monitor their children’s education, ensure improved supervision and provide capacity building support for staff and establish effective collaboration with stakeholders.

Alhaji Mohammed Seidu Issah Abah, the Regional Deputy Director of GES in charge of Human Resource Management and Development, said strategic monitoring systems were being put in place to help improve education quality and performance in schools.

He urged headmasters, teachers and District Education Directorates to effectively perform their duties in accordance with the dictates of the national and district Annual District Operational Plans (ADOPs).

He urged parents to be responsible for monitoring their children’s education and encouraged the school children to be disciplined and committed to their studies.

Madam Jawol Vera Magan, the YEfL called for collective efforts to help beef up the quality of education, invest and safeguard the future of Ghanaian children.

She said young people who lacked literacy were generally likely to make bad decisions and also become irresponsible in future.

The participants advised students to change their attitude towards studies and urged parents and teachers among other stakeholders to help monitor activities of students in a bid to curb falling standards of education in the regions.