The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Wednesday called for a policy change in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as a terminal point for basic school leavers.
The call was made by Mr Kojo Armah, CPP Shadow Cabinet Minister of Education, when speaking on the alternative policy vision on Education; at the 15th in the series of “How The CPP Will Do It: Education,” in Accra.
“The CPP’s view is that the BECE as it stands now prematurely condemns a large percentage of our youth to the fringes or outer perimeters of national development as they are categorise as drop-outs because they could not make the required aggregates to enter secondary schools, yet have very little other windows open to them,” he said.
On senior high school education, the CPP intended it to be an integral part of basic education to which all children should have equal access.
According to the CPP, BECE would be abolished as a terminal point but re-designed to become an integral part of a selection process to determine the next level of the child’s education instead of a pass or fail option.
The CPP also outlined its policy for second cycle education, teacher training colleges, trade, vocational and technical schools, national youth employment programme, non-formal education, tertiary institutions and managing the gap between private and public schools.
Mr Armah said the CPP was determined to widen the frontiers of education for girls through increased affirmative action.
He pointed out that the party when given the opportunity to rule the country after Election 2012, would encourage higher institutions to place
more emphasis on research, which must be seen as a necessary support to the nation’s new age of industrialisation especially in the wake of Ghana’s oil and gas production.