Deputy Minister for Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has disputed media reports that 182,000 students who sat for the 2013 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) could not obtain pass marks to enter the second-cycled institutions in the country.
According to him, the media has exaggerated the figures because the disclosed figures do not reflect the actual numbers who failed in the examination and revealed that it�s rather over 70,000 students who are expected to rewrite the BECE this year.
The Tuesday edition of the Ghanaian Times indicated that a total of 182,000 candidates who sat for the BECE did not pass the core subjects and therefore failed to gain admission in the public Senior High Schools in the country.
"The core subjects are English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies and Integrated Science, and the candidates either failed at least one of them, by obtaining grade 7 and above, instead of the required passing grade of between one and six," the publication read.
The Acting Director of the Computerized School and Placement System (CSSPS), George Atta-Boateng also told the newspaper that the "system was designed to automatically reject any student who failed at least one core subject."
Though the numbers seem alarming, Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa assured parents that there is hope for their wards to get placement in the various public Senior High Schools because the Education Ministry is "looking at filling in the 80000 vacancies that we have left even after this first phase. We are also looking at relaxing the pass mark policy a bit so that we can then fill in these vacancies.But it is also significant to stress that there is an opportunity to re-enter the BECE exams��
He advised the candidates who failed in the BECE to resit their examinations so as to ensure that they get placement into the Senior High Schools.
Speaking in an interview with Radio Gold, he urged the students not to relinquish in their efforts to get the pass marks to enter the Secondary institutions.
"Those who are not placed or had very horrible grades; they shouldn�t give up�Those who do not make it should repeat or should go to JHS3 again and be able to build their continuous assessment and write the exams again�.
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