Open letter to Minister of Education
Minister, the success of a nation or an institution lies in the quality of its leadership.
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I have been reading a lot about your efforts to fix pre-tertiary education in Ghana, and you deserve some credit.
In what I am about to retell, I see a leader who failed his people when they needed him the most.
Two Gomoa Buduatta DA JHS students in the Central Region of Ghana were denied access to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) on Monday, August 7, 2023.
The headmaster of the school reportedly withheld their examination registration fees.
The development subsequently led to their exclusion from the examination due to lack of index numbers, while the headmaster was nowhere to be found.
Imagine spending years preparing for something as crucial as a national examination, only for the time to arrive and, through no fault of yours, you are prevented from writing the examination.
How would you feel, honourable minister?
My heart aches when I imagine myself in that situation. Unfortunately, that is the reality of these two Gomoa Buduatta DA JHS students.
They were failed by a leader they had complete trust in.
I asked myself repeatedly: How are there no systems to prevent something like this from ever happening?
There should be a system for notifying candidates about their registration status at least one month before the BECE start date.
I remember during the school selection process after my BECE, a short messaging services (SMS) technology was developed, which allowed us to text a special short code to check the status of our schools' selection before the actual release of the school placements.
Minister, a system like this will allow students to confirm their registration status independently, allowing corrective actions to be taken before the examination starts.
We must, collectively, as a country come together to look into ways this situation can be prevented from ever happening again.
I pray my suggestion ignites a process of re-evaluation of some of our systems concerning examination registration and how we can make it more foolproof.
Thank you for your attention, and all the best as you strive to ensure that no girl or boy child is left behind in pre-tertiary education in Ghana.
Irene Esi Oppong,
Concerned SHS student,
Cape Coast.