Mahama’s government must bring back BECE cut-off point in 2025: Candidates are NOT serious

Some 2025 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates, or those in Basic 9 preparing for the exam, are not serious about their studies. Reintroducing cut-off points is one of the best ways to motivate them.

This will help 2025 candidates focus their commitment, ensure they learn, take their studies seriously, and challenge their teachers.

As a nation, we need to conserve resources invested in Free Senior High School (SHS) by not spending our scarce funds on candidates who are lazy and not studying because they know they will end up in SHS for free, even with very poor grades. This must end. Free SHS must be for those ready to study and ensure the government’s investment yields results.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, led by President John Dramani Mahama, must reinstate the BECE cut-off point in 2025. Free SHS can be described as a scholarship, and no serious institution or country awards scholarships to unmotivated or underperforming learners.

I have yet to see any serious scholarship provider spending so much on students who are not achieving satisfactory grades. The normal practice is that, even after a scholarship is awarded, grades must not fall below a certain level to maintain support. Free SHS does not function this way. Why make SHS so accessible that unmotivated students who do not study and, in reality, did not pass the BECE gain admission into SHS for free?

In the past four BECEs, candidates have received very poor grades and still entered SHS because of the Free SHS policy. We must not continue to make Free SHS “cheap” for students who are not studying. Instead, we should implement a cut-off point to challenge learners to study and pass the examination before accessing free entry. If they do not meet the grade, they will not benefit from taxpayer funds as Free SHS students.

Knowing they will be placed in SHS even with a high aggregate, students are not serious about their studies and instead cause problems for teachers in their schools.

At all levels of education, there are cut-off points for determining who passed and who failed. WAEC has a cut-off point for each of the 1 to 9 grades awarded to candidates for each subject, which the government uses along with the raw scores in placing students. Why not introduce cutoff points for aggregate scores and raw scores to challenge candidates who sit for the BECE?

If we have an aggregate of 25 as the cut-off point and a raw score of 280 as the cut-off point for placing students, students will become more serious with their studies. As it stands now, candidates with an aggregate score between 35 and 48 also gain admission.

The time to re-introduce the cut-off point is now! This is the call by the general public after the viral post titled 70% of 2021 BECE students want their scripts remarked: Report

Since the BECE has no clear-cut cut-off point as it used to, the seriousness of candidates has fallen. Candidates know that they do not have to put in too much effort to make it to secondary school. Since 2017, the government, through the GES and the Ministry of Education, has abolished the cut-off aggregate system for admitting students into Free SHS.

BECE is no longer competitive, and we all know it. It has lost a great deal of importance because a poor performance can land a bad student in big schools like Achimota, Presec, and Aburi Girls. In the past, this was highly unlikely.

Many BECE candidates are not putting in their best because they will gain admission anyway to the SHS. The commitment level and the needed academic competition that used to be present in many Junior High School classes before 2017 have fallen. Students are not challenged to work hard. Why struggle to make grades when just a little effort could land you admission into SHS, they ask?

A reader reacting to the viral post titled 70% of 2021 BECE students want their scripts remarked has this to say.

“There should be cut-off points for kids to become serious.”

The majority of candidates who sat for the 2024 edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for Schools after the West African Exams Council (WAEC) released the results say they want their scripts remarked. They hold the view that they should have performed better than the results released. However, the truth is that they did not do well, and their grades exposed them.

A student who completed Wenchi-based Great Provider School, identified as Osei Wusu Rexford in our comment section, said, “I want WAEC to go through my script again because I’m sure they didn’t mark my script well.”

Another BECE graduate from Special Light International School said, “I am highly not satisfied with my BECE for School results. Waec, please go through my scripts and kindly remark.”

From the above, the students believe they performed very well in the examination, but their results did not reflect that; hence, they are calling for remarking.

BECE candidates are no longer serious; bring back the cut-off points because the reintroduction of the cut-off point will be a wake-up call for the next crop of BECE candidates, teachers, and schools.

The removal of the cut-off point has affected all schools, and more importantly, private schools. The keen competition among private schools that perform well at the BECE has dwindled. Again, the systems put in place by the GES to give admission to BECE graduates from public schools ahead of their counterparts in private schools mean more students in public schools will relax their efforts towards good performance.

The BECE is no more competitive because of all the above, and it has led to the current reality that results don’t matter anymore. Today at the BECE, even those who fail to gain admissions due to bad performance go through self-placement to find their way there. BECE candidates are no longer serious, and until some form of visible cut-off point is reintroduced, we must not expect the best from these students.

Impact of BECE Cut-off Points on Student Seriousness:

• Increased Accountability: Knowing that they must meet specific standards to progress to the next level of education can create a sense of accountability among students, encouraging focus and dedication.
• Sense of Urgency: The potential consequences of not meeting the cut-offs can generate a sense of urgency in students, leading to increased diligence in their exam preparation.
• Clearer Expectations: Cut-off points provide tangible goals for achievement. This clarity fosters a greater understanding of educational expectations, helping students channel their efforts more effectively.

Free SHS needs to have a cut-off point to ensure the government invests in the education of those who are serious about their academics.

Improve on free SHS implementation and seek efficiency and quality before students enter SHS. Let’s spend on those who pass and not everyone; let the competition come; and bring back the cut-off point. BECE is no longer competitive, and we cannot deny the truth.

It’s crucial to acknowledge that cut-off points should be set responsibly and in conjunction with other evaluation methods. A singular focus on cut-offs can have negative side effects like excessive pressure on students and a narrowed emphasis on rote learning.

BECE candidates are no longer serious; we must bring back the cut-off points in 2025.

DO YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE? Leave a comment.

Source: Wisdom Hammond