One of the policies of the government that seems to hide the inefficiencies of public Junior High Schools in Ghana is the decision to give BECE 30% SHS placement in Public JHSs.
The Ministry of Education introduced the 30% school placement allotment for public Junior High School students who sit for BECE into ‘Category A’ public senior High Schools. The decision was a move to ensure equity in the school placement system, per the Ministry.
This is one of the policies of government which prevents brilliant BECE candidates in Private JHS from getting placed in schools they deserve.
The reality of this is that a BECE candidate in a public school will be placed ahead of his or her counterpart in a private school, even if the private school candidate performs better.
The Cancel BECE 30% SHS placement policy for Public JHS Call
The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has called on the Ministry of Education to scrap the 30% second cycle school (SHS) placement policy for public Junior High School BECE students ahead of this year’s school placement.
This policy defeats the chance to reward students with category A schools based wholly on their academic performance at the BECE.
Some students choose Category B schools out of fear of not being admitted to any Category A Senior High/Technical Schools.”
This policy indirectly means more BECE graduates from public schools will be placed in category A schools even if their grades are not better than their colleagues in private schools.
It hides the poor performance of candidates from the public and makes public schools look attractive to parents who are compelled to transfer their learners from private schools to public schools for the BECE registration.
This policy is a contributing factor that compels parents with their wards’ in private schools to move them to public schools for the BECE.
This policy is also indirectly destroying private Junior High Schools and making them unattractive, especially if their very good candidates with good BECE grades are not placed in category A schools they qualify for.
Prof. Damasus Tuurosong, president of the GNAPS, said the policy is unfair and a way to keep the best-performing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) students from getting into private second cycle schools.
He made it clear at the 9th General Conference of the Association that the 30% school placement policy was bad for private schools and was slowly getting rid of students from those schools across the country.
The Ministry of Education, on the other hand, says that giving 30% of school placements to public junior high school students who take the BECE into “Category A” public senior high schools is a way to make sure that the system is fair.