The Ghana Education Service (GES) in 2023 attempted to penalize JHS1 and 2 students who sat the 2023 BECE, but this action proved unsuccessful due to the GES’s inability to provide legal justification. The established principle is that only JHS3 students are eligible to take the examination. However, over the past decade, this practice has shifted, with Basic 8 students taking the exam and often achieving superior results compared to Basic 9 students. Today there are students in basic 6 and 7 who are likely to sit the BECE. This is a well-documented fact, exemplified by cases of 9 and 10-year-old students who excelled in the exam, pursued Science and Business programs, and subsequently achieved excellent WASSCE results at the university level.
The intention to identify and punish JHS1 and 2 students who were absent from their respective schools during the 2023 BECE by denying them access to Free SHS was widely condemned by the public and rightly so. This year, any similar plan should be abandoned by the GES, as there are compelling reasons why such a move would be counterproductive.
Parents whose JHS1 and 2 students sit the BECE in 2024 should be prepared to pursue legal action against the Ghana Education Service, as they are likely to prevail in such cases. It is crucial to remember that education is a fundamental human right enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. Any attempt by the GES to obstruct these students from accessing education, particularly an exit examination, would constitute a blatant disregard for the law and an infringement upon their fundamental rights. Given that the GES includes these constitutional principles in its Social Studies syllabus, it should be well-versed in these matters. Therefore, the GES cannot lawfully penalize JHS1 and 2 students who will be writing the 2025 BECE.
The GES cannot, under any circumstances, deny these students access to education on this basis. If any action is to be taken, it should be directed towards the heads of schools that registered these students. However, even this approach would be legally questionable.
In our schools, students in lower classes are often promoted or accelerated to higher classes based on their academic capabilities. For example, exceptionally bright students in Class Five are sometimes promoted to JHS1 at the end of the third term, bypassing Basic 6. Similarly, JHS1 students may be promoted to JHS2 or JHS3, depending on discussions with their parents.
If the GES has consistently accepted these internal promotions, it would be inconsistent to prevent these students from taking the BECE ahead of schedule. Therefore, the GES could not penalize JHS1 and 2 students for writing the 2025 BECE.
In our secondary schools, SHS2 students frequently sit the NOVDEC, a private WASSCE examination. They are often absent from regular classes to prepare for and take this exam. This practice is often known and even encouraged by teachers who recognize their students’ potential. When these students excel, they have the option to complete SHS as school candidates and take the WASSCE as school candidates, or they may apply for university admission and discontinue regular SHS. This provides another argument against the GES penalizing JHS1 and 2 students who wrote the 2023 BECE.
The GES must address the question: should these students be penalized or denied the opportunity to progress to university? The answer is unequivocally no.
While the NSMQ is typically reserved for final-year SHS students, some schools present SHS1 and SHS2 students who demonstrate exceptional ability. The recent example of Stephen Baah of Opoku Ware SHS, who, as an SHS1 student, led his school to the finals of the 2023 NSMQ, illustrates this point. If the GES and the competition organizers find this acceptable, then they should not object to Basic 7 and 8 students writing the BECE.
It is undeniable that registering JHS1 and JHS2 students for the BECE has certain negative implications. For instance, private school students are often registered by public schools to take the exam ahead of their peers. While private schools also register their own JHS1 and JHS2 students, their heads frequently complain about public schools secretly registering their JHS2 and JHS3 students. The GES has historically paid lip service to this issue, issuing warnings without taking substantive action.
Beyond holding head teachers accountable, the GES itself must bear a significant portion of the blame and face corrective measures, rather than penalizing innocent students whose right to education it seeks to violate.
The GES should focus its efforts on improving basic education. The resources allocated to identifying and penalizing JHS1 and JHS2 students who sat the 2023 BECE should be redirected towards addressing the poor reading abilities in public basic schools, resolving infrastructure deficits, and improving teacher conditions. These initiatives would yield far greater benefits for education than pursuing punitive actions.
If a student in JHS1 or JHS2 is academically gifted, they should be permitted to take the BECE. Public schools should register only their own students and refrain from registering students from private schools. Parents of private school students in JHS1 or JHS2 who wish for their children to take the BECE early should consult with their respective schools. Private schools with gifted students should proactively support these students in taking the BECE, thereby preventing other schools from poaching them.
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Just as the GES could not punish JHS1 and 2 students for writing the 2023 BECE, it cannot do same in 2025. It should instead, re-channel its energy and resources where they are needed within the service especially in public schools.
Source: Educationblog.org