How Private Basic Schools are being destroyed by GES

GES policies and that of other state institutions seem to paint a picture that suggests GES is trying to destroy private schools, reduce their market share and attractiveness using the BECE registration, examination, and school placement.

How Private Basic Schools are being destroyed by GES

The GES has a policy that ensures that “30% placement” is reserved for BECE graduates from public basic schools, which gives them more opportunities to be placed ahead of their colleagues in private schools irrespective of the grades obtained.

This is making private schools lose a lot of their pupils after they complete basic 6. The reality is that many parents are withdrawing their wards from private schools before JHS1 and taking them to public schools because of this practice.

Students with very good results from private schools are not sometimes placed even in their second or third choices although they qualify per their grades.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) seems to be hatching plans to collapse private basic schools with unfair tactics and ideas they continue to hatch. The newest revelation of the GES is that it wants to introduce an entrance examination for BECE graduates from private schools who sit the BECE. This is rather unfortunate and must be challenged by private schools and other stakeholders.

Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa disclosed in the week that an Entrance Examination for BECE graduates from private schools needs to be introduced for such students who want to be placed in public Category A second cycle schools.

While making the suggestion, he added that “In our various meetings I have suggested 80% or 90% Category A placement to be allocated to students from public schools and those from private schools be made to write an entrance exam before given admission”.

Already the government is paying for the BECE examination fee for all students in public JHS irrespective of their nationality whiles the BECE registration fee paid by private school candidates continues to be skyrocketed making being a BECE candidate in a private school not attractive.

There seems to be a conscious effort to frustrate private schools in the country and make them unattractive to parents. In the face of these tactics, the government schools remain unattractive, under-resourced, and without textbooks since the introduction of the new curriculum.

It seems the favoiratism of public schools and gorrilla tactics against private schools are an attempt to cover up for the inefficiencies in public schools and to make private schools unattractive at the JHS level.

The GES needs to remove all obstacles being put in the way of private schools as far as the BECE examination is concerned. Make the BECE competitive and place students in secondary schools without any form of favourtism toward public school students, as this will create good competition among students.

Reintroduce cut-off points and shelve the call for the SHS entrance examination for private school candidates. If you want to introduce the SHS entrance examination, all students in both public and private schools must participate because they are all children of Ghanaian parents.

An interesting development relating to the BECE is that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has responded to allegations levels against it which sought to suggest that WAEC intentionally marked down private schools’ BECE scripts in the just-released 2021 BECE results and placements.

WAEC while responding to the allegation added that the claim which was led by the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) is baseless and false.

The allegation has also been described by Madam Agnes Teye Cudjoe of the Examinations Council as a mere wild allegation on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News show. She further asserted that, it was not possible for WAEC to influence its over 10,000 examiners who mark the BECE School scripts against private schools and candidates.

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The GES and government may have good reasons for the decisions they have made in favour of public school candidates but they need to also examine the negative effects such decisions are having on private schools.

Government schools are not resourced enough to admit all learners of school-going age. Any attempt to deprive private schools and their students’ of fair treatment before, during, and after BECE must be halted.

It is time to encourage fair competiton at the BECE and through school placements to challenge all students in public schools to work hard just as is the case in private schools.

Source: Ghanaeducation.org