No GES rule is against JHS 1 and 2 students sitting BECE – NAGRAT

John Akunzebe, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the National Graduate Teachers Association (NAGRAT) says there is no law in the country that prohibits first and second-year Junior High School students (JHS) from sitting BECE.

Speaking to Dreamz FM, John said although the Ghana Education Service (GES) in charge of pre-tertiary education frowns on such acts, however, the service has no statute that bars non-final year students from sitting the exams.

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“As far as I know, there is no law in GES that when you are in form 1 or 2, you cannot write BECE. There’s no law. There’s no statue. But then there’s a principle, they (GES) frown on it,” he told the host of Dreamz FM Breakfast show.

The NAGRAT Chairman said this in reaction to a GES letter directing heads of Junior High Schools across the country to submit names of JHS 1 and 2 students who absented themselves from school during the period of the 2023 BECE.

Although the Ghana Education Service did not state in the letter the reason for the name request many believe it is an attempt to identify the non-final year Junior High School students who sat the national examination and punish them.

Mr Akunzebe warned that the Ghana Education Service (GES) may be setting itself up for a legal tussle, which it will eventually lose if it takes any punitive action against the prospective students for sitting the BECE for School candidates.

Admitting the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) is solely meant for final-year JHS students, the NAGRAT member argued that non-final year pupils who sat the exams did no wrong since there is no rule proscribing their action.

“What they (GES) are doing, if they collect these names and pupils have written and they want to do ABC and there is a litigant, the litigant will go to court because we are a country of rule of law,” he cautioned the Ghana Education Service

For Mr. Akunzebe, prospective pupils regardless of their level at the basic level should be allowed to sit the national examination for final year Junior High School (JHS) students if they are extremely brilliant and of age.

“There’s no law yet they frown upon it. That’s the problem of the Ghana Education Service (GES) we are talking about. If you think that you frown on this thing and it’s not good, then put in the statutes, everybody will see it clear,” he said.

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