Only two pupils out of the total of 1,599 candidates from the 41 public basic schools in the New Juaben South Municipality of Eastern Region scored an aggregate six (6) in the 2020 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).
The two pupils, who have made history by breaking the six-year drought for aggregate six in the Municipality, emerged from the same school, the Trinity Presbyterian Model Basic School, situated at Adweso.
Their names are Master Prince Charles Amankwaa and Master Abraham Morris Zida Kpodo.
Also, none of the 41 public schools in the Municipality scored 100 percent in the BECE with the overall pass rate pegging at 39.7 percent leaving a 60.3 percent fail score for the public schools.
In sharp contrast, the 29 private basic schools in the Municipality outperformed their counterparts scoring an overall 75.6 percentage pass mark with 16 pupils scoring aggregate six and 10 of the schools scoring 100%.
Disclosing this at a School Performance Appraisal Meeting on the 2020 BECE results, the Municipal Director of Education, Victor de-Graft Etsison, expressed worry that the performance was not befitting to the Municipality as the Eastern Regional capital.
“Definitely it is a source of worry. As indicated from the data, only two pupils from Trinity Model school scored aggregate six. It is a serious worry. We presented over 2247 candidates for the BECE and with such data, I mean it is not encouraging at all,” he explained.
Shying away from talking about the challenges that could lead to the poor performance, the Municipal Education Director said, his outfit has currently intensified supervision and monitoring as well as started organising special classes for the pupils on how to answer BECE questions while subject teachers are also working assiduously to enhance the situation in subsequent examinations.
He said this time all hands have been on deck to ensure tremendous performance considering the fact the MP for the Constituency, Michael Okyere Baafi, has sponsored the special classes, with the MCE also sponsoring Mock Examination while the directorate has also intensified its monitoring and supervision hoping that the BECE results becomes encouraging.
“As indicated, if you look at the regional update, we had 50.1 percent and that is not encouraging. What it means is that about 50 percent of the pupils presented in 2020 did not score between aggregate six and 30 and this time as indicated in the performance contract, we are expecting at least 10 percent improvement over last year’s performance,” Mr. Etsison expressed.
The New Juaben South Municipal Chief Executive, Isaac Appaw-Gyasi, on his part, believed that the Municipality has a lot of work to do to enhance the situation.
He expressed that the government keeps doing its best to improve education and that if parents and other stakeholders also get committed, academic performance will improve.
Mr Appaw-Gyasi stressed that the fact that the government has rolled out free education does not mean parents and other stakeholders should slack on their roles.
“This meeting has brought out the fact that a lot of parents think the PTA system has been abolished. That is not true, rather we are encouraging them to come together to support the government. That is the understanding that is lacking.
“And we have made it clear to them that the government supports the activities of the PTA as well as the school management boards. We are all working together. I believe that by next year, we are going to change the entire system completely. For me I see the positive out of this and I believe the narrative will be different when we meet next year,” the MCE said.
He expressed that the current results should not be blamed on the government since the government has been making frantic efforts to improve education.
