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 Professor Kwesi Yankah
Professor Kwesi Yankah

Education Ministry directs NCTE to review policy on varsity admission requirement

The Ministry of Education has directed the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to review its policy that candidates of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) who obtain grade D7 and E8 or both cannot be considered for admission to the university.

If the policy is reviewed, WASSCE candidates who were denied admission to the university because they obtained grades D7 and E8 may be able to gain admission to their preferred universities in the 2018/19 academic year.

In an interview in Accra on Monday, the Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, said the ministry was not happy that many students could not pursue their academic ambitions because of some of their grades.

Some of the affected candidates, he said, had become street hawkers because of the policy of NCTE on credit passes in Mathematics and Science.

He wondered why a candidate seeking admission to pursue a course in the humanities would be denied admission because the candidate obtained grade D7 or E8 in Mathematics and the Sciences, which, by the way, were pass marks.

Admission should be based on courses

Prof. Yankah said the subjects in which candidates obtained grade D7 or E8 and choice of courses should be taken into consideration before those who had applied to pursue tertiary education were denied admission to the university.

He, therefore, suggested that in such a case, candidates aiming at pursuing Mathematical Sciences or Engineering should be made to secure grade C6 or better, “but let us not insist on credit for those whose study in the university will need little Mathematics.

 “In a similar way, a candidate who gets D7 or E8 in English and is seeking admission to pursue Science should not be denied admission because he or she had D7 or E8 in the English Language.

Prof. Yankah said the world of candidates of WASSCE should not end at the senior high school (SHS) level because they obtained D7 or E8.

He added that there were very good students outside the universities who could have done very well but they failed to obtain grades better than D7 or E8.

National Council for Tertiary Education

When contacted, the Executive Secretary of the NCTE, Professor Mohammed Salifu, confirmed that the ministry had forwarded the request to the council for consideration.

He, however, said the council had taken a look at the request but felt that there was the need to explore the full implications of the request before any decision could be taken on it.

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