President John Dramani Mahama has attributed the poor performance of Ghanaian candidates in recent West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results to long-standing neglect of the country’s basic education system.
Speaking in Accra at the official launch of a STEM Box initiative for basic school pupils, the President said years of failure to strengthen foundational learning had created a “conveyor belt” system producing poorly prepared students.
He cited stalled capitation grants and weak teacher quality at the foundational level as key contributors.
“The inability to send the capitation grants, ensuring that we have quality teachers at a foundational level, at a basic level, because it is that level that prepares the child for secondary and tertiary education,” he said. “And once you don’t get that level right, you will just send the child through a conveyor belt like a factory, and when it comes out at the end, it will be picked out by quality control and said that this one did not do well.”
Mahama stressed that the country’s education turnaround must begin with literacy, numeracy and writing. “Foundational learning means that by the time a child leaves primary school, they should be able to read properly. By the time the child leaves primary school, they should be able to write properly,” he said.
“By the time the child leaves primary school, they should be able to do basic arithmetic. If we’re able to get our children to get these three things right, writing, reading and arithmetic, then they have the foundation to continue into secondary education,” he added.
He warned that without such reforms, Ghana risked perpetuating a system where “a child finishes basic school and sometimes still finds it difficult to write his name.”
The President also backed strict invigilation in national examinations, saying vigilance “was not going to go away”.
He urged better preparation of pupils rather than reliance on exam malpractice.
He further tasked the Minister of Education and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service to probe the Chief Examiner’s report to determine the government’s next line of action.
“I have asked the Minister of Education and the Director General of the GES to study the Chief Examiner’s report and let’s see what quick reforms we can carry out in order that our children get a quality education,” he said.
