GES blames poor BECE performance on Free SHS and teacher absenteeism

March 3, 2020 12:00 PM

The Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Wenchi Municipality of the Bono Region has identified teacher absenteeism, and the Free Senior High School policy as the major challenges affecting education in the region.

BECE candidates

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Wenchi Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service, David Baffoe attributed the poor academic performance in public schools to the lack of supervision in schools.

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According to him, teacher absenteeism and pupils not being regular in school continue to affect the performance of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results in schools.

He said in 2017, the Municipality recorded 68% in the BECE, 67% in 2018 but recorded as low as 25% in 2019.

Due to the introduction of the Free SHS policy, pupils do not study because they know that they will be placed in SHS schools no matter the grades they make in the BECE, David Baffoe added.

He stated that "The teachers are the drivers of the curriculum. If things will go well, it depends on them. We are putting in place measures to ensure that the absenteeism of teachers is minimized. We had some teachers in some circuits absenting themselves up to 28 days out of the 70 days. Teachers must live up to expectation to be able to improve on the performance of the pupils."