By Bernice Bessey
A final year student of the University of Ghana Basic Schools, Owuraku Sintim, has challenged his fellow Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates not lose hope, but be encouraged to rewrite the cancelled five papers that have been scheduled for today and Tuesday.
Thus, today, Monday June 29, 2015, the students will write English Language 2, Integrated Science 2 and Religious & Moral Education 2, and tomorrow, Tuesday June 30, 2015, the Social Studies 1&2 and Mathematics 2 papers will be written. According Owuraku, the candidates should not worry too much over the cancellation, as they can do better if they really prepare to re-sit the two-day exams.
He said the cancellation can also serve as another opportunity for the candidates to improve upon their performance, since not all of them had access to the leaked papers.
The young man encouraged his fellows students at the University of Ghana Basic School, Legon 60th Anniversary, with the theme “Six Decades of Quality Basic Education: Challenges and Prospects” last Wednesday in Accra.
The school presented 172 candidates for the BECE Deputy, and as Headteacher, Christina N. A. A. Armah told journalists in an interview, the West Africa Examination Council’s (WAEC) decision to cancel the leaked papers should be accepted. She said cheating the system must not be allowed and encouraged at all, especially with education, since it is the foundation of nation building.
The re-sit, she said, will provide the opportunity for the world to know which school really worked hard to prepare its students to pass the BECE, adding, “We will all start on a clean slate.” She was, however, convinced that the cancellation would not affect the candidates’ performance next week, adding that the children had been counselled and motivated enough to face the re-sit.
The Headmaster, Alfred Cudjoe-Allotey, said the school has produced students serving in various capacities of the economy. The school, over the period, has upgraded its teaching methodology, especially, in technology, as most of the classrooms have projectors for teaching the children. Also, from Primary ‘1’ to Junior High School (JHS) ‘3’ the students are taught the French and Chinese languages to increase employment opportunities in the future.
The school’s ambition for the coming years is to go beyond the yardstick of the BECE to greater things that enhance academic and skills development, saying, “Our academic performance has not got to the level expected. It seems, in Ghana, the only yardstick to measure basic school performance is the BECE, which is not good enough.”
Mr. Cudjoe-Allotey seized the chance to advise parents to have an essential interest in their children’s education, since parental negligence contributes immensely to the falling standard of education.
“I have taught for a long time. The major problem with our education system is parental neglect. Sometimes children would come to school, and you would wonder whether the parents saw them before they left the home,” he bemoaned. As part of the anniversary celebration, the school would organise a float and picnic, traditional day, games, speech and prize giving day, Students Representative Council week (SRC) among others for teachers, students, parents and old students to interact.