Ahead of the release of the 2023 BECE results, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has taken steps to identify unqualified JHS1 and JHS2 students who skipped classes and wrote the 2023 BECE meant for only final-year students in Junior High School 2
The GES has consequently instructed all regional, metro, and district directors of education to provide the service with the names of attending and absent JHS 1 and JHS 2 students, especially during the 2023 BECE week from Monday, August 7th, to Friday, August 11th, 2023.
Furthermore, the GES has mandated that all school heads in both public and private schools submit the names of JHS one and two students.
The GES seems ready to penalize JHS1 and JHS2 students who wrote the 2023 BECE and the schools involved.
Government schools entertain parents who take their wards out of private JHS and register them in such public schools, hence enabling JHS 1 and 2 students to write the BECE.
The JHS1 and JHS2 students who wrote the 2023 BECE cannot be blamed for taking part in the examination if heads of public schools do not agree to register such students when their parents take them to such schools.
It is very difficult for a private school to register a student from a public school for the BECE since such schools are more interested in the performance and marketing of such schools using their BECE results.
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Additional information obtained by Graphic Online suggests that the GES also requires the attendance records of all JHS 2 students in the 2021/2022 academic year. In other words, the GES aims to track the attendance of students who took the 2023 BECE in August, during the 2021/2022 academic year.
In response to this, some education experts have informed the media online that the GES intends to identify unqualified Form One and Two students who “skipped” grades and sat for the 2023 BECE, subsequently disqualifying them from entering senior high school in Form One, sanctioning them or sanctioning school heads who aided in that action.
2023 BECE Results
The results for the 2023 BECE are anticipated to be released within the last week of October 2023 and the first week of November 2023.
Form One students for Senior High School (SHS) are expected to commence classes around the first week of December 2023.
Ghanaeducation.org Online has gathered that the GES has communicated with all regional directors of Education on this matter. In a letter to them last week, the GES requested a list of JHS 2 students in the 2021/2022 academic year, from both public and private schools, who took the 2023 BECE.
Unprecedented number of students for Form One
A total of 602,457 final-year junior high school (JHS) students across Ghana wrote the 2023 BECE in August.
The total candidature of 602,457 represented an increase of 49,049 over the 2022 figure of 553,408.
Education Watchers have said the unprecedented number of candidates for the 2023 BECE may create problems for the GES in placing all the students in senior high school (SHS) Form One in the wake of free SHS.
BECE marking begins
Heads of public junior high schools have been instructed to submit their 2021/2022 academic year JHS 2 class attendance registers to their respective Metro/Municipal/District Directors of Education, for compilation and submission of the students’ names to the Director-General through their respective Regional Directors of Education by the close of work on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.
They are urged to ensure that the data is submitted within the specified deadline and to carry out this important task without delay.
Absentee JHS 1 and 2 Students during 2023 BECE
In addition to this, school heads are required to submit the names of absentee JHS students in Forms 1 and 2, in both public and private schools, who were specifically absent for the 2021/2022 academic year, particularly those absent from August 7th to 11th in 2023.
Heads of junior high schools are directed to provide the names of JHS 1 and JHS 2 students who were absent during the specified period, along with their class attendance registers for verification, to their respective Metro/Municipal/District Directors of Education.
Metro/Municipal/District Directors of Education are tasked with compiling and submitting the names of these absentees to the Director-General through their respective Regional Directors of Education.