President John Dramani Mahama has attributed the recent poor performance in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination to the neglect of basic education over several years, including the failure to send capitation grants and a shortage of quality teachers at the foundational level.
Speaking at the launch of the Ghana Made STEM Box Initiative in Accra on Thursday, he said the country’s focus must shift to foundational learning to prevent children from progressing through the education system without acquiring basic skills.
“One of the major things that has taken place in the last several years is the neglect of basic education, inability to send the capitation grants, and ensuring that we have quality teachers at a foundational level, at a basic level, because it is that level that prepares the child for secondary and tertiary education,” the President stated.
He warned that without proper foundational learning, the education system operates like a factory conveyor belt that pushes children through without adequate preparation.
“Once you don’t get that level right, you will just send the child through a conveyor belt like a factory and when it comes out at the end, it will be picked out by quality control and said that this one did not do well,” President Mahama explained.
The President emphasized that children must master three basic skills, reading, writing, and basic arithmetic, before leaving primary school to have the foundation to continue into secondary education.
“If we’re able to get our children to get these three things right, writing, reading, and arithmetic, then they have the foundation to continue into secondary education,” he said.
Mahama described the current situation where some children finish basic school still struggling to write their names, warning that strict invigilation alone cannot solve the problem without proper preparation.
“Vigilance is not going to go away. Strict invigilation is not going to go away. And so we must make sure that the children are well prepared to on their own be able to study and pass the exams that are waiting for them,” the President stated.
He has ordered an investigation into what he described as “disastrous” WASSCE results, expressing bewilderment at the dramatic performance drop between student batches.
“It is mind boggling that with the same teachers, the same factors in play, just from one batch to another, one batch does so disastrously and so we need to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
The President directed the Education Minister and the Director General of the Ghana Education Service to analyze the examiner’s report to understand what went wrong and identify quick reforms to improve educational quality.
“I’ve asked the Minister and he’s told the Director General of the GES to study the examiner’s report and let’s see what quick reforms we can carry out in order that our children get a quality education,” he explained.
The comments came as the West African Examinations Council recently released results that have become “an issue of great concern to governments, parents and the public at large,” according to the President.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
