MoE forms technical group to oversee private schools NST

The Ministry of Education (MoE) ahead of the conduct of the 2022 National Standardised Test has formed a technical group to supervise the conduct of the national examination for primary 2 and 4 private school students across the country.

The Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) in a discussion with AcademicWeek said the Technical Working Group instituted on September 14, 2022, will ensure the smooth implementation of the 2022 test.

“Pursuant to the implementation of NST in all schools, MoE through NaCCA on September 14, 2022, instituted a Technical Working Group (TWG) to oversee the smooth implementation of 2022 NST for Basic 2 and Basic 4 pupils across the country

The composition of this TWG is industrial players being selected from Private Education Sector Associations, Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, National Schools Inspectorate Authority, West Africa Examination Council and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment,” the GNACOPS Director, Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah stated.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) responsible for the conduct of WASSCE and BECE for School examinations this academic year will administer the 2022 edition of the national test to primary students.

The national standardised examination, Minister for Education, Dr Adutwum has said is to drastically reduce learning poverty he say has amid the outbreak of the global Covid pandemic increased among students in the country.

“The test is to evaluate the primary 4 students on whether they can read or not and this will also help the central government to see the challenges that are confronting the country’s education sector,” he told stakeholders.

According to Dr Yaw Adutwum, results of the test in mathematics and literacy will be given to every single parent to monitor the progress of their wards. The provisional results he said will be available on a website for public access.

In a related development, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has also said it will form a technical committee to plan the conduct of the National Standardised Test (NST) for government basic school students across the country.

The formation of the committee comes after the GES met with the Director-General and Assessment team of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) to review the 2021 National Standardised Test results.

Aside from the review of the results of the maiden edition of the Test for primary four public school students, they also discussed challenges that confronted the 2021 national exams and how to prevent reoccurrence in the 2022 edition.