51 ‘2023 BECE graduates’ prison inmates get SHS/SHTS placement
All 51 prison inmates who sat and passed the 2023 edition of the Basic Education Certificate Examination have gained admission to various Senior High/Technical schools (SHS/SHTS) in the country, the Daily Graphic has reported.
The newspaper in its report sighted by Thisterm.com said the 2023 BECE graduates obtained between aggregates 16 and 31 in the national examination, thus qualifying them to benefit from the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy.
They comprise 26 juveniles from the Senior Correctional Centre in Accra, nine inmates from the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons, eight inmates from the Kumasi Central Prison, four from the Ankaful Maximum Security and four more from the Sunyani Central Prisons.
Graphic said Thirteen of them, all juveniles, have since been discharged upon completing their terms, leaving 38 of the inmate SHS freshers still serving their terms adding that “13 of the juveniles are still in prison custody.”
The Head of Media Relations of the Ghana Prisons Service, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons Irene Pokuah Wiredu in a statement said “The inmate students have, over the years, justified the investments made in their education.”
The statement said the Ghana Prisons Service, in its quest to deliver on its reformation and rehabilitation mandate in line with modern universal best practices, introduced inmates to formal education, where they offered subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.
“Formal education gained its popularity in the prisons in 2007, with the support of the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling and the Ghana Education Trust Fund,” Ghana Prisons Service said in the press release.
The BECE prison inmates according to the Daily Graphic were placed at Mfantsipim Senior High School (SHS) in Cape Coast; Labone SHS, St Thomas Aquinas SHS, Accra Technical Training Centre, the Forces SHS, all in Accra; Tema Technical Institute, and the Agona Swedru Technical Institute, among other pre-tertiary institutions.
Adult inmates who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), Graphic said are pursuing General Arts or Business at SHSs on the premises of the Prisons Service under the supervision of the Ghana Education Service.
The prospective students the newspaper said enjoy the full package of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) initiative, receiving free tuition and feeding in addition to educational materials from the Ghana Education Service.