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Today, the increasing focus on equal access to quality education in policy proposals for education in Ghana is evident, following the recent increase in the number of policies designed since September 2017.
Ghana’s recent history has been characterized by an increasing focus on equitable access to quality education for Ghanaian children, reflected in the various policy interventions designed to support outcomes for students and families, especially for those who are historically disadvantaged and underserved. This is in recognition of the enormous role of education in national development and how it can bridge inequalities and level life outcomes.
In September 2017, Ghana began implementing an ‘extended basic education’ system that makes upper secondary education (SHS) free and inclusive. For policy makers, various contexts underscored the design and implementation of this free and inclusive education regime. These include a perennial weak transition problem (especially for students from basic to secondary education), imbalances in access to education, the need to combat poverty and crime and stimulate improved civic life, health and conditions. life as well as economic growth for the people of Ghana. . With regard to the weak transition, for example, from the academic years 2010/11 to 2016/17, of a total of 4,000,000 students who started primary school, only 500,000 students were enrolled in upper secondary education (data from Education Management Information System (EMIS), 2010-2017), indicating that a significant majority of students (i.e. 3,500,000 students) were unable to access upper secondary school. The standards-based BECE ‘stanine’ grading system, built on a highly ‘selective’ modality, has played a long-standing role in aggravating the problem of limited access to secondary education, year after year. In addition, data from the 2012/13 and 2016/17 Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) show that there are significant inequalities in access to education across wealth quintiles, and that Students who come from the poorest 20% of households are at a severe disadvantage. when it comes to accessing secondary education. Despite the obvious justifications, the implementation of the free SHS policy was greeted with concern in certain quarters, and some critics argued that it would lead to a compromise on the quality of education offered to Ghanaian children.
Based on these concerns, it has become necessary to examine and compare the performance of the first graduates produced under the SHS Free policy with the performance of previous years, particularly the academic year prior to the implementation of the policy. Table 1 and Figure 1 show the percentage of candidates who achieved tertiary education qualification scores (TEQG) (A1-C6) in the core subjects of WASSCE in the last five years.
With regard to the percentage of candidates achieving Tertiary Education Qualifications (TEQG) (A1-C6) in core subjects, this year’s WASSCE results are one of the best in the last five years. Comparing the percentage of candidates who obtained the TEQG (A1-C6) in the WASSCE core subjects in the last five years, it can be seen that the greatest improvement was in mathematics. The percentage of candidates who obtained the TEQG in mathematics (the most feared subject in the curriculum) increased from 32% in 2016 to more than double this number (that is, approximately 66%) in 2020. In addition, mathematics registered the largest percentage increase (9.43%). ) of candidates who obtained an A1 grade, while English Language recorded a marginal percentage increase (0.6%) of candidates who obtained an A1 grade. Furthermore, the proportion of candidates who obtained the TEQG in the four core subjects exceeded 50% in the last two years (i.e. 2019 and 2020). This means that just over half of the candidates who took the WASSCE in the last two years obtained tertiary education qualifications (A1-C6).
It is very interesting to note that these important improvements in WASSCE are occurring at a time when the entry requirements to enter SHS have been drastically reduced from the aggregate BECE qualification of 30 to just the aggregate 522 due to the inclusive free SHS initiative. More importantly, this year’s exam, written under the mantle of the global Covid-19 pandemic, was itself a unique event. It can be argued that no other class in our history has had to take their final exams under the extreme physical and psychological conditions these brave little boys did. Thus, the results are clear manifestations that government interventions aimed at ensuring that Ghanaian youth have access to inclusive and equitable quality SHS education, as well as achieving better learning outcomes, are working. For mathematics, in particular, improvement is a fulfilled ‘manifest commitment’. It can be argued that Ghana has reached a stage where half of its youth have a tertiary education qualification degree in mathematics or arithmetic, putting the country on the path to becoming a math-friendly nation.
The data line graph (Figure 2) shows how core subject results have improved over the past five years.
The percentage of candidates who obtained the TEQG in Social Studies increased from 54.5% in 2016 to 64.3% in 2020, showing an improvement of 10 percentage points. Similarly, there have been some
improvements in Integrated Science and English Language. These results suggest that roughly 50% of the roughly 342,500 candidates who wrote the WASSCE, which is over 150,000, likely qualify for tertiary education (that is, earning grades A1-C6 in their best six subjects, including English, math and integrated science). .
Analysis shows that WASSCE 2020 performance is up to standard and compares well to 2019 performance. On average, 2020 performance shows a 12.7 percent increase over 2016 performance for all four subjects basic. Therefore, it is evident that the performance of 2020 is remarkable compared to the performance of 2016 (the year before the implementation of the free SHS). In summary, this year’s performance, like any performance in the past three years, continues to dispel concerns about compromised educational quality when it comes to student achievement.
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Prince Hamid Armah is the Acting Director General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA). He is a lecturer and consultant in education and research, with experience in teaching, research and political participation in the contexts of the United Kingdom and Ghana, for more than 18 years. It has been widely published in the Ghanaian and international media and has over 60 written publications including policy papers, reports, speeches, peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles on a variety of educational topics in Ghana.
Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa is the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and associate professor. He was previously Dean of the Office of International Programs, Dean of the College of Arts, and Head of the Publications Department, all at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Professor Opoku-Amankwa has a deep understanding of social, political, and educational reforms, and has studied, worked, and researched a number of key issues for more than three decades.
