Education

Reduce BECE subjects to ensure greater results – Patrick Awuah

The President of Ashesi University, Patrick Awuah, is advocating for a reduction in the number of subjects candidates write for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

According to Mr. Awuah, the current system allows too many subjects which makes the exam unproductive.

The former Program Manager for Microsoft says experimenting with various levels of Ghana’s educational sector as an ecosystem, will over time ensure greater results when eventually scaled up.

Speaking at an event dubbed ‘Achimota Speaks’ on Wednesday, Mr. Awuah said: “I will say that the BECE needs to experiment with reducing the number of subjects that are tested. We are testing too many things.

This is not to say we should not teach a lot of things, we should. We should teach Arts and Music and Science so forth, but we should test these three things: Maths, English and Science.

The testing can be done more quickly, the grading can be done more quickly.The BECE system cost the Senior High School half a year because it is testing so many subjects and it takes forever to come out with the grades.”

“Why not start intensive English and Maths from day one? Why not do some of these outside the educational system?. What if every language show, it is a Twi language caption. If it is English, then an English caption and it is the law so every TV programme has to do this and let it run and see what happens. And we know China did this and was very successful.”

As calls for a reduction in the number of subjects for BECE intensifies, government has revealed its intention to convert the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) into a placement exam for Senior High Schools.

The Minister for Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who made this known, indicated that the vision to convert the BECE to a placement exam, will be realized with the expansion of the capacity of technical and vocational education.

Addressing a press soiree last week, the Minister said :“that is why the President talks about expanding the technical and vocational area so we can accommodate everybody. When we finish and we are able to accommodate everybody, we will change the BECE from an exit exam to a placement exam.”