2020 BECE results were poor due to COVID-19 outbreak

The Ministry of Education has put in place some measures to promote effective teaching and learning for students towards the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Following the poor performances of students in their final examination ( BECE) across the country in the year 2020, the Ministry of Education together with the Ghana Education Service have signed a Performance Agreement with all the Educational Directorates as a promise to improve the results of students in the final year examinations.

According to Madam Nelly Sally Coleman, who is the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) Director of Education, the Ministry of Education gave the Directorates some conditions for schools to increase their performance rate by at least 10 per cent in relation to the results of the 2020 examination.

The Directorates also went ahead to sign a performance contract with the various school heads at the national, regional, and district levels.

She made it known there was a meeting held with school heads and research was also conducted on the various causes for the less appreciative performances of students in the previous year and finding solutions to it.

After the research was conducted, one of the main problems they identified for poor performances of students was the rise of COVID-19 which resulted in students staying home for almost nine months which accounted for the poor performance of students in the 2020 BECE.

Even though during the pandemic, Ghana Education put some interventions for radio and Tv into educating students, that didn’t guarantee 100 per cent success.

Another problem that was identified was that as soon as students register for their final examinations, they tend to be truant and some also sleep during lessons because of fatigue.

The measures that were put in place include;

At the Metro level, School Improvement Performing Officers (SIBOs) have been assigned on the field to monitor teaching and learning in various schools and suggest corrections if something is not done right or call for intervention from higher authorities.

Again, an inter-class quiz has been organized at various to know the strengths and weaknesses of students on a particular subject and mocks have been organized for students at various schools which is in the process of marking and the results will be known soon.

Additionally, Guidance and Counseling sessions have been intensified to help students with some bad attitudes they demonstrate towards academic work.