A total of 600,714 candidates sat for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for school and private candidates, which began today, August 7, 2023.
Reports indicate that 906,000 students enrolled in kindergaten in 2012. It was expected that all things being equal, the exact would have progressed through the primary stages and present themselves as candidates for the BECE.
However, just 67% of the total figure sat for this week’s exams. About 43% of the students are not accounted for.
Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch EduWatch, Mr. Kofi Asare, in an interview on JoyFM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, highlighted some issues that might have led to this.
Prior to that, he clarified that “They (students) haven’t disappeared from the surface of the earth. Perhaps they have disappeared from the government education system.
This is not the first time. Last year and two years ago, we asked similar questions.
“We have been trying to establish the survival rate within our education system by trying to use the numbers that enter KG1 and numbers that complete by way of writing BECE for both private and public schools.”
Branching to international programmes
According to Mr Kofi, at such a tender age, some children are enrolled into international programme such as the International Baccalaureate.
The International Baccalaureate is a highly regarded international education program that offers a comprehensive and balanced curriculum for students aged 3 to 19.
It is known for its rigorous academic standards, focus on developing critical thinking skills, and emphasis on international-mindedness. The IB programme includes the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), and the Diploma Programme (DP), which is often referred to as the “IB Diploma.”
Mr Kofi estimates that about “10,000 people per cohort (made the move). So that is like 3 or 4 percent of the number we are looking for.”
Deaths
There is also the issue of the loss of lives. The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch EduWatch argues that is “less than 2 percent.”
Migration
Some parents send their wards outside the country, he noted. However, Mr Kofi noted that the number of parents who migrate their children is relatively less due to poverty.
“Also, there is the idea that people may travel out of the country. I see that idea also to be realistic. If we have high number of the ‘dropout’ emerging from urban areas, but we should look at the statistics, you’d realize that although 33 percent are not making it to BECE at the national level, in the five northern regions, the percentage is more than 40 percent.
“Which means that there is a correlation between poverty and the survival rate. So I don’t think that the argument that many have traveled outside the country would hold so much because this is the case that majority of them are coming from the poverty part of the county where traveling outside the county is a luxury,” he explained.
Also, Mr Kofi is confident that majority of students “are subject of dropout.”
He cited reports from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which touched on the cohort survival rate and this measures an education system’s holding power and internal efficiency.
Rates approaching 100 percent indicate high retention and low dropout levels.
According to Mr Kofi, UNICEF’s current rating for Primary 6 is 18 percent.
“The meaning is that before these students got to primary 6, 18 percent had dropped out,” he stated.
The cohort survival rate measures an education system’s holding power and internal efficiency. Rates approaching 100 percent indicate high retention and low dropout levels.
Per Mr Kofi, data from the Ministry of Education indicates that between Primary 6 and Junior High School 1, the drop out rate in deprived areas is about 20 percent.
He attributed this phenomenon to the lack of Junior High Schools in such areas. He pegs that about 25 percent of primary schools in rural areas do not have Junior High Schools.
“Apart from that, you come to the the realization that in the northern regions alone, 60 percent of private schools do not have JHS. So when they graduate, many graduate back into the community due to long distance,” he added.