Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), has called on the Ghana Education Service, ministry of education and relevant stakeholders to convene a conversation on cohort survival and dropouts in Ghana’s basic education system.
According to the education think tank, this has become crucial following the statistic which unravels the state of the cohorts system in the country. It revealed that Ghana’s Education Strategic Plan 2018-2030 targets a 100 per cent completion for all children who enroll in basic school.
Eduwatch stated that Ghana has improved on the participation of girls in the BECE by registering more girls than boys for the 2023 BECE. This, it noted, is the result of a decade old policies and multi-stakeholder interventions to improve girls’ retention and survival in basic schools.
However, it indicated that a third, representing over 300,000 of the cohort who enrolled in KG 1 in 2012/13 academic year, and currently candidates cannot be found.
“The Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service in collaboration with Development Partners and NGOs must urgently convene a conversation on cohort survival and dropouts in Ghana’s basic education system, while undertaking further tracer studies into the survival of the 2012/13 cohort.”
Africa Education Watch
Furthermore, Eduwatch noted that while some may have dropped out, repeated classes along the line or left to pursue international programmes, it is necessary to undertake further research into the cohort’s survival to understand the specific issues and the magnitude at which they hinder school progression for both boys and girls in order to inform policy.
Additionally, Eduwatch emphasized that the 2023 BECE candidates enrolled as pupils into KG 1 in the 2012/2013 academic year with a total of 906,942 pupils in both private (196,671) and public (710,271) KGs, of which 49.6 per cent were girls. By 2023, it noted that the number of pupils translated into only 600,714 BECE candidates, indicating decline of 33 per cent.
“This suggests that a third of the pupils may have dropped out/left the cohort during the 11-year journey to BECE candidature. This disturbing finding corroborates previous ones in Eduwatch’s policy brief on school dropouts.”
Africa Education Watch
Gender analysis of cohorts survival
Furthermore, Eduwatch expressed that the gender analysis of the cohort survival indicates that more boys, representing some 41%, could not make it to JHS 3 and complete BECE candidature, than 39% of girls. It however noted that further research is required to investigate the whereabouts of the 306,228 pupils and ascertain the major drivers of the cohort survival issues to inform policy.
With the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) scheduled today, Monday, August 7, 2023, for the commencement of the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), Eduwatch revealed that some 600,714 candidates from 18,993 public and private schools are expected to sit for the examinations.
In light of this, Eduwatch recounted that between 2014 and 2023, there were 5,073,703 BECE candidates out of which 2,477,931 representing (48.8%) were girls. Also, it stated that the average annual growth in BECE candidates over the period is 4.5%, lowest annual growth in BECE candidates was in 2022, 3.4%, highest annual growth in BECE candidates was in 2018 (8.9%), and for females, the highest annual growth in BECE candidates was in 2014 (9.18%).
Meanwhile, the education think tank underscored that the second highest annual growth of 8.7% in BECE candidates and highest since 2014 is in
2023, with a total of 600,714 candidates. It further explained that there are 300,323 male and 300,391 female candidates for the 2023 BECE.
This, according to Eduwatch, means that for the first time in recent history, 68 more girls than boys are BECE candidates, which is a
significant achievement in an education system where traditionally, more boys than girls enrol in basic school and participate in BECE.
“A major reason for the increased participation of girls is the various interventions by government, development partners and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to improve girls’ retention in basic schools over the past decade and beyond.”
Africa Edcation Watch
