It does not cease to amaze me how the lack of proper planning or strategic planning has become endemic to the Ghanaian national fabric- be it government agencies, private firms, communities and even individuals. Business experts define planning as “The process of anticipating future occurrences and problems, exploring their probable impact, and detailing policies, goals, objectives, and strategies to solve the problems.” Based on this definition, both the West African Education Council (WAEC) and Ghana Education Services (GES) have miserably failed parents and students, as far as the timely release of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results are concerned. These persistent delays have put undue physical and financial stress students and parents, denying them the time and flexibility vital to adequately prepare for this transition.
The whole madness hypothetically goes like this; Candidates from Basic Schools would sit for the BECE around the last week of April (i.e. April 20 through April 27); WAEC releases the results roughly on 27th of August. Results are released to schools about five (5) days later (around 1st or 2nd Sep). At this very same time, GES gurus are supposedly utilizing the much-touted computerized system, which has replaced the manual system, to select and place qualified BECE candidates into their respective schools of choice and that takes another four (4) days to implement. Meanwhile our imaginary timeline places us somewhere around 6th September. It is also worthy to mention that it may take extra two (2) days for individuals living in the rural areas to know where they would be placed, and that puts us on 8th September. Guess when secondary schools reopen? Unsurprisingly, between 9th to 12th September! Did you guess right? I surely hope not. This is how maddening it is for JSS graduates to enroll at secondary schools in Ghana today.
My frustration is borne out by the fact that, year after year, prospective secondary school students are short-changed, founding out which schools they would be attending barely days or at most, a week before schools reopen. Thus, students are cheated of the much-needed time to adequately prepare financially, physically and mentally to leave their homes, mostly for the first time, to live with strangers in dormitories and at different regions of the country.
My questions, therefore, are do WAEC and GES officials care about students, parents and schools (their customers)? If they do, why does this farce continue yearly? Is anybody measuring success or failure of WAEC and GES overall performance in managing these testing and placement processes? Are officials being held accountable for these malfunctions? Do parents and guardians complaints mean anything to these shortsighted so-called government bureaucrats? This pressure-ladden schedule seems to be deliberate for whatever unknown reasons.
Why is this issue relevant? Because it is indicative of how business is done in Africa, particularly in Ghana. If Ghanaians want to effectively compete in the interdependent global marketplace, they should make planning and strategic thinking the engines of their overall development effort. Needless to say, we should also measure results and use the feedback systems to mitigate problems. Finally, individuals and even governments agencies must be held accountable for their actions. So that poor, otherwise brilliant students, would not lose the opportunity to continue their education due to insufficient time to search for funding or inadequately opportunity to prepare for such an important transition.
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