Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Education Minister has charged the public tertiary institutions to permit students who obtain grade D7 in WASSCE have access to tertiary education and not regard them as barriers to the pursuit of their education.
According to the Minister, the institutions must create access for such students through innovative programmes. Dr Adutwum explained that he does not understand why the pursuit of education by students should be riddled with such problems for the mere fact that they had a grade D7 in WASSCE.
Commenting on this at the swearing in and inauguration of Governing Councils of some public technical Universities, the Minister urged the schools to innovate and create access programmes for such students.
“Our gross tertiary enrolment ratio is 18.8%, South Korea is 73.6%, so no nation has been able to show transformation without hitting 40 to 50% tertiary enrolment ratio”.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum
The education minister revealed that about 40% of education activities in Mauritius are “changing”. Following this, he stated that the country’s “18% will not change Ghana” and that is why the President has set an agenda of 40% as the threshold.
“… what it also means is that you have to start looking at your programmes, more diploma programmes so that students sitting home with D7 will find a place in your institution.
“There are institutions that are saying we are not getting the numbers but what happened to supporting students offering courses in diploma, electrical engineering and after that you’re going to see the numbers going up and after that they can go to work. And then if they want to continue, they can continue. So, we shouldn’t see D7 as a barrier for students accessing tertiary”.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum
Interpretation of WASSCE results
Presently, most public Universities have set C6 as the least grade a student can get in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to qualify for enrolment.
Although some have questioned the move, an appreciable change has not been made to the requirement as many students have to rewrite such courses to be able to enrol in tertiary institutions.
The education minister believes that such students must have the opportunity to prove themselves.
As far back as 2007, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports reached an agreement with public universities on the interpretation of grades for admission of WASSCE/SSSCE graduates to respective programs of study.
Following a meeting between the National Council for Tertiary Education, the West Africa Examinations Council and the Education Ministry, the acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service then, Michael Nsowah revealed that candidates with respective SSCE and WASSCE qualifications would be treated on their own merit.
A statement jointly signed by Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, then Chairman of Vice Chancellors Council and Mr Ato Essuman, Chief Director of the Ministry disclosed that the universities instituted the necessary procedures to address concerns of all applicants.
The statement said the explanation was necessary following concerns raised by applicants and other stakeholders regarding the interpretation of the grades for admission of WASSCE candidates to the respective programmes of study in the Universities.
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Well, it’s not a bad idea. Le’s just hope that students don’t end up lowering the academic standards in the long run.