By: Emmanuel Amoah
Ghana’s Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has announced that the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) will be replaced with entrance exams for students advancing to Senior High School (SHS).
This change is part of the Free Secondary Education Bill, which aims to offer government-funded resources for free, high-quality secondary education.
The bill reclassifies junior high school as lower secondary, establishing a six-year secondary education system. Lower secondary schools will now provide the same learning opportunities as senior high schools, eliminating the necessity for the BECE certificate exam.
One of the bill’s key elements is making secondary education compulsory. Dr. Adutwum stressed the importance of completing senior high school in the 21st century, with certificate exams to be conducted at the senior high level rather than at the junior high level.
Addressing suggestions from Africa Education Watch, Dr. Adutwum proposed making basic practical agriculture a mandatory subject in the lower secondary curriculum. This would introduce students to agriculture, aiding them in deciding whether to pursue it further in upper secondary school.
