The Ghana Education Services has disclosed that some 137,000 students who sat the BECE in 2023 and were placed in second-cycle (secondary and TVET) schools have yet to report to school.
This number constitutes 23.2% of the total of 590,000 students expected in SHS1 for the 2023–3024 academic year.
The students were placed in second-cycle schools using the CCSPS. The current statistics, while worrying, are not surprising.
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Likely reasons why over 135,000 (23.2%) of 2023 BECE graduates have not reported to school
The students who have either not enrolled or enrolled but never reported to school may have valid reasons.
- Some students were placed in day schools far away from their residences, and they have to travel several kilometers daily. The cost of transportation and other factors may compel parents to access private SHSs within their community or outside of it if the school has a hostel facility.
- It is not clear if the GES is using its main data or data within the schools to conclude on the number. Some students who were not placed in some schools may have ended up in such schools through all manner of legal and illegal means, and once the GES has not captured these students, the number may be over bloated.
- Again, some candidates who were placed in school so far from their residence may have obtained bad grades, and so the parents may decide that the candidate should re-sit the BECE as a private candidate in 2024. Such a situation will certainly not allow the student to report to school.
- For other students, financial constraints may hinder the ability of their parents to procure the necessary items for boarding school. Such a challenge can contribute to the decision of parents to get such a learner to learn a vocation or a skill as an apprentice.
- Most of the schools in category C are very handicapped in terms of school facilities and many parents upon visiting such schools or knowing their distance from home may have decided to send their wards to the best private schools around for quality education and service compared to such category C schools. The GES using data analysis should examine the data on the schools the 137,000 students did not report to and the reasons will be justified.
The Ghana Education Service needs to do a detailed data analysis and consider all the variables explained above and others not considered in this publication to be able to make a good statistical observation.
The students were expected to report to school in December; however, many of them did not report.
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It was expected that once the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over, these students will report, but as per the GES, 137,000 of those placed out of the 590,000 successfully placed have not reported to school. The GES must know that the reason for the huge numbers is in the data it is yet to analyze.
Source: Wisdom Hammond