Following the decision of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to fish out all JHS1 and JHS2 students who wrote the 2023 BECE, the GES has blacklisted all such candidates from enjoying the government’s Free SHS.
What this means is that such students will not be placed in any public secondary school during placement, irrespective of their performance.
According to a news item published by the Daily Graphic, The GES has instructed all regional, metro, and district directors of education to furnish the management of the GES with the names of all JHS1 and JHS2 students who were absent from school during the conduct of the 2023 BECE held from August 7th to August 11th, 2023.
The Daily Graphic further disclosed that the GES has also asked heads of all public and private schools to furnish the GES with the names of their JHS1 and JHS2 students in their schools currently.
“Furthermore, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has mandated that all school heads in both public and private schools should submit the names of JHS one and two students.”
The date requested by the GES includes the record of attendance for JHS2 students for the 2021/2022 academic. This data is to aid the GES to track students who wrote the 2023 BECE in August 2023.
The GES hopes this data will help it find out all JHS1 and 2 students who absented themselves from class and sat for the 2023 BECE.
The investigations when completed will lead to the subsequent disqualification of all students who did not qualify to sit the BECE in 2023.
However, another cross-section of the public has kicked against the move by the GES and has argued that those who should be punished for allowing students in JHS 1 and 2 to sit for the 2023 BECE should be head teachers of public and private schools who registered such students for the examination.
In a related development, the 2023 BECE results are expected to be released before the end of November 2023.
The school placement will also be released in the same month to permit BECE graduates to start their SHS1 of secondary education on December 4th, 2023. Stakeholders are to note that the school placement will be done based on a candidate’s grade and raw scores, and the final decision by the GES to place a student in a chosen school will be influenced by the competition for the programme, accommodation, and other factors.
Candidates who obtain grade 9 in Mathematics and or Integrated Science are often not placed in any school of choice and are not allowed to use the Self-Placement Module either.
2023 BECE candidates who obtain good grades but are not placed in any of the eleven schools they chose will have the chance to use the Self-Placement Module.
The GES announced that BECE graduates will start their first year of secondary education on December 4th when it released the 2023–2024 academic calendar for basic and secondary schools.
READ: 2023 BECE and WASSCE Results: How to Check Online and Buy Result Checkers
The provisional results of Junior High School students who sat for the 33rd edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) are anticipated to be released in late October 2023 and the first week of November 2023.
