The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has proposed that instead of conducting the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for pupils, the criteria for them to enter into the Senior High School, should be the writing of terminal examination.
The Communication Director of the Party, Mr Paa Kow Ackon, who made the proposal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said apart from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) system not being fair to all basic school candidates throughout the country, most of the candidates who wrote the BECE were too young to write the considerable number of papers prescribed by the Council.
The Communication Director was in the Upper East Region with the National Chairman of the Party, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, as part of the Party’s re-organization tour to all the ten regions of the country, aimed at improving the Party’s electoral fortunes in 2020.
He said the PPP was of the view that If Government proceeded with the “pass BECE and qualify for free SHS”, scheduled for September, 2017, the programme would remain selective and would benefit students who attended relatively good private JHS, more than the large majority of young people in the rural areas, especially girls from disadvantaged backgrounds who attended public JHS, and could not meet the high stake cut-off point.
“In fact it is feared that policy will not only derail government’s efforts at making senior high school education accessible to all, but will also negate the aspect of compulsory education for all policy, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution,” he said.
He said the PPP promised free continuous compulsory education from kindergarten to the end of senior high school and would standardize school facilities from kindergarten to Senior High School with libraries, toilets, classrooms, kitchen, housing for teachers, playground among others should it win power in 2020.
Mr Ackon said among the Party’s policy was to significantly increase ICT and Technical and Vocational training among all school leavers particularly those at the Junior and Senior High School levels to gain employable skills and more students encouraged to pursue ICT and Technical and Vocational training.
“The ruling NPP government must come clear on what Free SHS policy include? We need to know so we can track it and review it responsibly. We want to enforce the compulsory aspect of the education policy that is part of the 1992 Constitution. The NPP must come clean,” he said.
The National Chairman of the Party, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, said the purpose of the re-organization tour was to inject some energy into the Party’s rank and file in order to prepare them well for the 2020 elections.
He said as part of the Party’s strategies, plans were underway to strengthen the Party’s structures from the polling station, the constituency and the regional levels to make them more viable.
The National Chairman who stated that Ghana was becoming a lawless and feared state, cited the political vigilante groups such as the “ Delta force, Azorka boys, Bolga Bulldogs and the Montie Three” and the recent gruesome murder of an army officer, and attributed the problem to failure on the part of the leadership of both the ruling government, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition Party, the National Democratic Congress Party(NDC) as well as the law enforcement agencies.