Review English Language Exam Structure For BECE Candidates—Opoku Mensah Advises

The Head of research at Micjoy Advertising, Mr. Emmanuel Opoku Mensah, has criticised the structure of 2018 BECE English Language paper.

At its 2018 African Quality Awards held at the Golden Tulip, Kumasi on Tuesday, in his address, the Founding President of Micjoy Advertising, Mr Michael Ampong said that his outfit has identified a seeming challenge which if not addressed, would impact negatively on pupils' performances in the upcoming Basic Education Certificate Examinations( BECE).

When he took his turn, Mr. Opoku Mensah alluded to a publication of www.educationghana.net which was captioned: 'No selected Text for the Cock Crow in BECE 2018; Candidates are to Prepare for all texts'.

In the said publication, the Director General of the GES is quoted to have said in a statement signed on the April 13, 2018 that all Teachers of English Language at the Junior High Schools who are preparing the Candidates for the BECE are instructed to guide the candidates to learn all the texts in the literature book.

Highlighting the burden that awaits candidates in the impending exams, Mr. Opoku told the gathering that the COCKCROW, the prescribed text for the literature aspect of the JHS curriculum, comprises nine short stories and seven poems.

What is more worrying, according to him is that the text also includes a novella, OLIVER TWIST and Ama Ata Aidoo's drama, THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST.

The status quo, according to Mr. Opoku Mensah has been that even though pupils are made to study all the genres in the text, WAEC, before each year's BECE, selects some of the texts for examination purposes. And indeed, before the director general's instruction in April 2018, teachers had already been informed of the selected texts for the 2018 BECE as early as the first term of this academic year.

Speaking to the media after the award ceremony, the head of research added that, of all the countless texts prescribed for the pupils, only ten context questions are put to pupils to elicit their responses for only ten marks.

Parents and teachers who spoke to the media on conditions of anonymity posited that their wards and pupils respectively are dispirited because of this new development.

It is worth mentioning that before he ended his address, Mr. Opoku Mensah appealed passionately to the Deputy Minister of the Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum and the Chairman of the GES Council, Mr. Kenneth Nsowah who were awardees at the ceremony to intervene.

According to him, their failure to influence the system to revert to the status quo may impact negatively on pupils' performances in the English Language paper.

In his response, the council chair of the GES reacted that he believes in holistic education and that selecting some of the texts for examination purposes is not the best.