BECE graduates SHS going date to be postponed on Monday – MP
Parliament will impress the Minister for Education to change the Senior High School (SHS) going date for students who sat for the 2023 edition of BECE when he appears before the House on Monday, a Member of Parliament has said.
The Akatsi North Member of Parliament, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe in an interview with JoyNews described as disrespectful the Education Ministry’s decision not to postpone the first-year second cycle school students reporting date from December 4, 2023, despite Parliament’s plea.
The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee in the interview questioned why the Ministry is in a hurry for first-year students to report to school on December 4 when they have about 108,000 placement issues to be resolved.
The Parliament’s Education Committee member argued that the 2023 Free Senior High School (Free SHS) students must not be overworked while suggesting that the reopening date be shifted to January for the students to rest.
“If you’re saying that you have given a directive and there would be no change, why are you making it so difficult for parents and teachers to prepare for proper academic work?” the Akatsi North Constituency lawmaker quizzed.
His comment comes after a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng said the reporting date for students who partook in the BECE to report to their various placed second cycle schools will not be postponed from December 4, 2023.
In an interview monitored by Thisterm.com, Kwasi argued that the 2023/2024 academic calendar which contained the reporting date for the 2023 BECE graduates was published weeks before the release of the computer school placement.
“The academic calendar was put out several weeks before now, therefore parents were supposed to make adequate preparations prior to the reopening,” the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ministry in Charge of Education said.
According to the management of the Ghana Education Service, out of the 598,839 provisional BECE results received from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), 585,797 BECE candidates qualified for school placement.
“A total of 477,772 (81.56%) prospective students have automatically been placed in one of their choices. This is a significant improvement compared to last year’s, with over 100,000 more students placed
However, 108,025 (18.44%) qualified candidates could not be matched with any of their choices. All such students are, therefore to do self-placement to select from available schools,” GES under the auspices of the Education Ministry said.
Source:thisterm.com