BASIC EDUCATION NEGLECTED as 43% fail BECE in Akuapem North

Nearly half of the total number of candidates presented for the Basic Education Certificate Examination by the Akuapem North Municipal Directorate in 2013 failed. This represents forty three percent (43%) of candidates from the Municipality at the examination. The percentage however indicated a marginal improvement of the 2012 results where forty five percent (45%) failed. Four schools in the Municipality had all their candidates failing in all the nine subjects they sat for. These schools are Lakpa M/A Junior High School, Addo Nkwanta Anglican Junior High School, Mamfe Young Souls Junior High School, and Mampong Demodeaf Junior High School. This is a repeated record of the number of schools with zero percent (0%) in the examination. As the pupils prepare for the next examination in June it is important that we pay a critical look at their performance over the past two years. Out of the two thousand four hundred (2400) registered candidates for the examination, Two thousand three hundred and eighty two (2382) candidates turned up to write. Reasons cited for the eighteen (18) absentees included pregnancy (5), travelled (3), dead (1), dropout (3), absent without reason (5). This is double the number who refused to turn up on the day of the examination. Less than one percent of the candidates received aggregate six with all of them coming from one school, St Mary Preparatory School in Okorase. This in actual figures is nineteen (19), comprising of eleven boys and eight girls. St Mary Preparatory is one of the fourteen schools who attained a hundred percent record in the Municipality. These fourteen schools with a total of three hundred and sixty candidates, representing fifteen percent (15%) of the total number of candidates from the Municipality passed in all subjects they wrote. Some highly rated schools like Nana Ankobea Takyiwa School in Mampong Akuapem and Akropong P.T.C Demonstration, who normally receive appreciable number of candidates with aggregate six disappointed this time around. In the order of performance, Nana Ankobea was overtaken from its long held first position by St Mary Preparatory; coming in second place is Akropong P.T.C. Demonstration with Nana Ankobea placing third. By way of giving further statistics of the results, nearly half of the candidates at the examination received aggregates between sixteen to thirty (16-30). This group carried a whooping forty nine percent of the candidates from the Municipality at the examination. The percentage in actual figures translates to one thousand one hundred and sixty five (1165) of the total number of candidates 2382 at the examination. Similarly, one hundred and eighty three (183) candidates scored between aggregate (6-15). The figure translates into a meager eight percent (8%). It can be deduced from the above statistics the worrying of the standard of education in the Municipality. Even though, the Municipality recorded marginal improvement in the performance of the candidates it presented, the record is not one to be proud of and efforts should be made to reverse it.