Afadzato South District Education Directorate Prepares 1158 Candidates For BECE

The Afadzato- South District Directorate of Ghana Education Service (GES), in partnership with the Plan International Ghana, Afadzato-South District Assembly and Conference of Heads of Basic Schools (COHBS) in the district has organised a six-day intensive grooming workshop for all the 1,158 registered Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in the district from Monday, 27th May, 2019 to Saturday, 1st June, 2019 at eight centers.

For the past two years, the BECE results for the district had declined drastically; 39.9% and 32.8% in the 2017 and 2018 respectively.

To ameliorate this canker, several interventions have been adopted for the 2018/2019 academic year to improve the 2019 BECE by at least 20%.

Earlier this year, the GES directorate, under the directorship of Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi II, organized separate sensitisation and consultative forum for all stakeholders: parents, community members, students, teachers, and head teachers.

During the forums, the stakeholders discussed the poor performance canker, identified the militating factors and committed themselves to reversing the trend, starting from the 2019 BECE.

Teachers’ commitment for example, was to maximize their task on time and use remedial classes and other strategies to adequately prepare the candidates ahead of their final examinations in June.

The climax of the Directorate’s preparation for the 2019 BECE is the organization of a very intensive grooming workshop for all its candidates in six subjects; 4 core subjects (English Language, Mathematics. Integrated Science and Social Studies) and 2 elective subjects (ICT and Religious and Moral Education).

The workshop, scheduled in two cohorts (3 days each), involves discussion, brainstorming challenging topics, answering techniques and how markings are done and scores are awarded. The exercise involved assembling all the 2019 BECE candidates across the District at eight(8) selected centers to receive three (3) days intensive tuition on specific topics, and guidelines on question answering techniques from a pool of very seasoned examiners.

As part of measures to ensure high patronage and participation by candidates, the directorate has arranged to provide one hot meal to each candidate for each of the three days.

In a short opening ceremony on Monday 27th May, 2019 at the Ve- Golokuati R.C Center in the Afadzato-South District of the Volta Region, the District Director of Education, Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi II urged candidates to see the grooming workshop and other interventions as great opportunities and utilize them for their own good.

She charged the candidates to be punctual, regular and pay rapt attention to the resource persons.

She encouraged them to interact with the resource persons by asking and answering questions and sharing their experiences for expert solutions.

“The Grooming workshop is not a joke. You are therefore, expected to cooperate with your resource teachers and participate fully in this all important workshop”, she said.

The District Chief Executive for Afadzato-South District, Mr. Wisdom Semanu Seneadza reminded the candidates that the BECE stands between them and their life goals.

“You are at a crossroad of your lives where you have to choose between a bright future and a gloomy one”, he said.

Mr. Seneadza, who is a legal practitioner, inspired them against all odds and real-life challenging situations.

He encourages them to remain resolute, ride the storm and become very successful.