MoE reacts to calls to extend 1st-year SHS students reporting date
The Ministry of Education following calls for the reporting date for first-year second-cycle school (SHS) students to be postponed from December 4, 2023, has said the school-going date for the 2023 BECE graduates remains unchanged.
The December 4, 2023 reporting date which is for both single and double-track Free Senior High School (Free SHS) students, was contained in the 2023/2024 academic calendar released recently by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng reacting to concerns about the first-year SHS students reporting date said the academic calendar was released weeks ago to allow parents to prepare ahead of time.
“Resumption date for students within the SHS space remains Monday, December 4, 2023. The expectation is that students report on the first day. But let me also hasten to add that, the first-year students who are unable to report on the first day will not automatically lose their slots.
Students can report the following day or even the following week, as we have always witnessed. If you look at the academic calendar, it had already been within the public space for some time now and the expectation was that parents, guardians, and even students prepared ahead of time,” the MoE spokesman said in an interview.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has called on the Ministry in Charge of Education to reconsider the controversial December 4, 2023 reporting date and change it to the first week of January 2024.
“The house calls on and urges the Minister of Education to reconsider the directive by the Ministry of Education to students and authorities, including teaching and non-teaching staff, to resume academic work on Monday, December 4, 2023
“The house proposes for the consideration of the Ministry of Education the first week of January 2023 for the resumption of academic work in these schools,” the Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said on Friday.
The management of the Ghana Education Service on November 28, 2023, released the computer school placement of Junior High School students who partook in the 33rd edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The Ghana Education Service (GES) in the press statement said that out of the 598,839 BECE provisional results received from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), 585,797 prospective candidates qualified to for school placement
“A total of 477,772 (81.56%) prospective students have automatically been placed in one of their choices. This is a significant improvement compared to last year’s, with over 100,000 more students placed.
However, 108,025 (18.44%) qualified candidates could not be matched with any of their choices. All such students are, therefore. to do Self-Placement to select from available schools. To access the placement platform,” it said in the release.