JHS students likely to sit 34th BECE without textbooks – EduWatch

This year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination is likely to be conducted for Junior High School students without their access to any textbooks to aid in preparation for the BECE, Africa Education Watch Director Kofi Asare has said.

In an interview with Joy FM monitored by Thisterm.com, the EduWatch official said this is because there has been a shift in the curriculum since the finalisation of the Common Core curriculum by the central government.

He explained that the Common Core curriculum did not reach finalisation on the same day as the primary school curriculum adding that the first batch of students using the Common Core curriculum would be sitting for the BECE next year.

Mr Asare emphasised that if efforts are not made to provide textbooks between now and June, these students might be “writing BECE without seeing any textbooks” as they have commenced learning under the Common Core.

“That’s why I don’t see the junior school textbooks happening anytime between now and the next Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE),” the Africa Education Watch official said speaking on JoyFM’s Super Morning Show.

He said the unavailability of textbooks in various Junior High Schools is due to an issue between the publishers and the government alleging that the textbooks publishers say they have not been paid by the central government.

“When they were promised that the government was giving them 100% local content in the publication of textbooks, they were all happy, and they went and procured loans to print textbooks, and then they have not been paid. They owe about 90% of what they do,” he said.

In a related development, the Ghana Education Service has urged the public, particularly Junior High School students to disregard the news that the subjects for the 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination will be reduced to five.

An official of the Ghana Education Service (GES) who spoke to Thisterm.com on condition of anonymity said no such decision has been taken for Junior High School students to write 5 subjects in the next BECE instead of the usual 9.