Government will keep investing in education – Ablakwa

The government of President John Dramani Mahama will continue to invest in quality, accessibility, and affordability in Ghana’s education sector in addition to the many initiatives in the sector, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Education (Tertiary), has said.

According to him, the investment will be an addition to what has been already made in the sector “such as the Secondary Education Improvement Project, building capacity for mathematics and science teachers, the recent recruitment of 2,500 mathematics and science teachers to address shortfalls, re-equipping of science resource centres, ICT interventions including laptops for teachers and students, the supply of textbooks, scholarships and the construction of community day schools all but to mention a few”.

His comments follow a recent debate on this year’s results of the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSSCE), described by a section of the Ghanaian public as the worst in the history of the country.

But a statement released by Mr Ablakwa on his official Facebook page on Monday August 29 said: “Any positive debate on education and the future of our youth ought to be encouraged and sustained. It is refreshing to note that the debate has now shifted from the earlier erroneous claim that this year's performance was the worst in the entire history of the WASSCE. As we all now know, official data from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) points to significant improvements over the last five years.”

“That said, there still remain major fallacies with the new focus in this debate. Two main problematic claims are being canvassed: first, that the current educational system is mainly producing failures when compared to the A Level era which we are told produced a vast majority of successful candidates. These proponents actually proceed to suggest that we return to the A Level system.”

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WASSCE DEBATE AND MATTERS ARISING THEREFROM

I have followed the current debate on the performance of our candidates in the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) with keen interest.

Any positive debate on education and the future of our youth ought to be encouraged and sustained.

It is refreshing to note that the debate has now shifted from the earlier erroneous claim that this year's performance was the worst in the entire history of the WASSCE. As we all now know, official data from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) points to significant improvements over the last five years.

That said, there still remain major fallacies with the new focus in this debate. Two main problematic claims are being canvassed: first, that the current educational system is mainly producing failures when compared to the A Level era, which we are told produced a vast majority of successful candidates. These proponents actually proceed to suggest that we return to the A Level system.

The second claim is that over a million students have failed over the last six years and have all now become a national security risk.

Let us now subject these claims to scrutiny:

Available performance statistics from WAEC on Grade A-E in three subjects with a pass in General Paper on GCE/A Level from 1992 to 1996 points to the following:

1992 - 27.6%

1993 - 27.3%

1994 - 31.5%

1995 - 26.4%

1996 -27.4%

From the evidence, the claim by some commentators that the A Level system produced a vast majority of successful candidates who qualified to proceed to the university is not supported by the facts. In reality, the A Level trend is not different from the WASSCE trend thus over the last five years.

Let's consider the second fallacy which is but a hasty conclusion that all those who were unable to meet the A1-C6 mark have become a national security risk.

This argument fails to consider the fact that there is an opportunity for candidates to re-sit their papers as private candidates. The world is replete with many great achievers who had to rewrite, sometimes on multiple occasions. Official data reveals that an overwhelming majority take up the re-sit option but most importantly, the performance statistics of these re-sits are quite encouraging. For example in 2015, of the 62,073 private candidates who sat for Social Studies, 46,127 representing 74.3% had between A1 and C6. For English Language, out of the 95,073 presented, 44,637 representing 47% had between A1 to C6. That of Core Maths was 13.3% while Integrated Science posted 24.8%.

The 2014 re-sit performance in the same order of subjects as above scored 59.2%, 44.6%, 15.1% and 31.7%.

From the data, many continue to qualify for tertiary education even if it's on the second or third attempt. It's therefore misleading and disingenuous to conclude that all those who missed the pass mark since 2006 are on the streets posing a national security risk to Yaw Donkor's men. In any case, education has never been a race and there's no country that achieves a 100% pass rate.

The government of President Mahama will continue to invest in quality, access and affordability in addition to the many initiatives such as the Secondary Education Improvement Project, building capacity for maths and science teachers, the recent recruitment of 2,500 maths and science teachers to address shortfalls, re-equipping science resource centres, ICT interventions including laptops for teachers and students, supply of textbooks, scholarships, and the construction of community day schools all but to mention a few.

I hope this helps the current debate.

God bless our dear country.