Sync WASSCE-Uni calendars to allow maximum admissions - Haffar

Seasoned Ghanaian Educationist, Anis Haffar says government should focus on restructuring the educational system to address the annual problem of students not getting admissions into public universities.

Mr. Haffar said on his programme ‘QUALITY EDUCATION’ on the XYZ Breakfast show Wednesday that public universities should be configured to accommodate average students rather than admitting only brilliant students.

Last year, the National Accreditation Board issued a directive for Polytechnics not to admit prospective students with grades D7 and E8.

The NAB said it wanted to raise the educational standards.

The situation generated concerns from some stakeholders who proposed that the board should make provisions for D7 and E8 students to avoid exposing them to social vices.

The education ministry then came out to announce that a total number of 16,188 applicants didn’t meet the minimum admission requirements for 2013.

Recently, some public universities - Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Mines and Technology (UMAT) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC) - have decided not to offer admission to 150,000 prospective students who would sit for the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination this year.

The three public universities argue that they would have exhausted their first semester before the prospective students could be admitted.

However, Anis Haffar says there has to be a synchronisation of the calendars of the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to help deal with the discrepancies between the time examination results are released and the start of university admissions.

Mr Haffar believes fixing the discrepancy in calendars will help clear the backlog of students awaiting admission into Universities.

According to him, students must not be encouraged to stay at home for a year before entering the university.