BECE graduates with aggregate 30 to 48 do not deserve placement ,they should be made to re- sit the BECE

This year’s BECE results are beginning to be scary after the release of the 2023 School placement. A careful perusal of the complaints and those complaining of not being placed in schools or not getting their preferred school placement shows that, many of these students scored aggregates between 30 and 48.

Why should a student spend 9 years in basic school, or three years in Junior High School and obtain an aggregate of 30 to 48?

There are issues that need to be addressed to deal with this trend.

These grades are a clear indication that such students are bound to miss placement into all six schools they chose.

Such grades also have raw scores between 200 and 260 which are also too low and less competitive for placement into any of the secondary schools and programmes in categories A and B.

Such grades at best may be placed in category C schools if the competition for placement is not keen in such schools.

The decision by the government to introduce the free SHS policy and take off the cut-off point is seriously harming basic education and the BECE performance of the candidates.

The fact that, anyone can get placed or use the self-placement module and be placed makes the situation more worrying.

The absence of cut-off point for placement is the biggest cause of laziness among Junior High school students. Many of these students have become very lazy and do not take their studies seriously.

Students obtaining an aggregate of 30 to 48 are complaining, and their parents are supporting them. These parents want their academically poor students to be enrolled in category A schools, but the same parents failed to take a serious interest in the education of their wards.

Students have become obsessed with mobile phones, TikTok, and other social media platforms. They are spending less time with their books and every caution and effort by teachers, head teachers, and school owners to win learners from unproductive behaviours falls on deaf ears. However, parents have neglected their roles in ensuring the discipline of their children and many more are not concerned about the academic work of their children but are quick to blame schools and teachers for abysmal BECE performance of their wards.

The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service must be bold enough to let parents and their wards know that, weak grades in the BECE between Aggregate 30 and Aggregate 48 will not permit such students to be placed in Category A or B schools.

We must stop pampering the truth, and let the general public know that even though the BECE no longer has a cut-off point, bad grades between grades 30 ad 48 cannot help such students get placed in categories A and B schools.

Indiscipline among final JHS students in various schools remains another headache that needs to be dealt with. Teachers are doing their very best and students need to be serious. Teachers also need to re-examine their teaching methods and approaches.

They need to understand their students and how to communicate and transfer knowledge in ways that will help students to grasp the concepts they are teaching.

The GES and the Ministry of Education need to also know that the graduates of Junior High School are like raw or semi-finished inputs once they enter secondary school and that, even the best teachers and resources do not always turn bad raw materials in this case of students from JHS into great students for the WASSCE. We need to feed the best students into our secondary schools to get value for money with the free SHS.

Re-introduce the cut-off point in terms of raw scores for each category of school, and explain to parents all the factors that may lead to students missing placement into schools they chose.

Parents whose wards obtained grades between 30 and 48 must not be pampered in the name of free SHS. Let them know the students did not do well and that they cannot get the kind of schools they want to be placed in.

Again, parents whose wards are now in JHS three (3) need to learn from what is happening and ensure they take their ward’s preparation toward the BECE more seriously now before it is too late. Parents and students also need to know that, in selecting schools, choices must be made based on the candidate’s academic strength and not mere taste and preference. Also, it is not compulsory for candidates to choose schools from categories A and B if their academic strength cannot secure placement into those schools.

Finally, schools must stop hiding the actual performance of final-year students from parents. If the candidate to be is not good, do not give or award free scores just to decorate the mock results or end-of-term examination results. Paint the exact picture so that the parents and students will sit up.

All BECE graduates with an aggregate of 30 to 48 do not deserve placement in SHS. Such students should instead be made to re-sit the BECE as private candidates and better their grades to merit placement into the presumed big schools they want to be placed in.

This is the bitter truth parents and students do not want to hear and the government, GES, and the MoE are polishing in their communication. Let us stop wasting resources on poor grades in the name of Free SHS.