Nana Frimpomaa II, a philanthropist and the CEO of CaringKids International, an NGO has stated strongly that the BECE is too basic to assess the performance of school children at the end of the basic level.

Nana, whose vision is to see all Ghanaian school children moving from JHS to the SHS and beyond, said in order for the children to realize their big dreams, BECE is not and cannot be the best measuring rod to test their performance at the basic level.

She reiterated that a number of procedures or platforms could be setup to bring the best out of children at the basic level, just as it is done in the developed world and that just ushering them to write the BECE at the end of the basic level does the children no good.

She continued that the system never reveals the real performance of our children since some are naturally born “late-learners” and their brains accelerate at a higher pace later on. Many of these children are automatically cut out after their BECE examination and the nation eventually loses great potentials.

Nana Frimpomaa stressed that the basic or JHS level is a stage where the school children should be given the necessary motivation, technology and tools such as excellent and adequate tuition coupled with ICT skills.

She explained that such move helps build their brains to the level of that of their colleagues in the developed world.

Nana lamented that the number of Senior High Schools in the country is low and with the computerized school selection and placement system which prevents a number of qualified students from getting their choice, many always find themselves in the wanderland. She buttressed her point by the fact that over 150,000 children are woefully cut out from the road to SHS every year. The education activist continued that there are pressing financial and social problems to address so as to help the children to SHS, instead some gurus hiding behind their desks just adopt this unhelpful computerized selection system to slash the number of children expected to qualify for SHS.

Nana Frimpomaa personally caters for one hundred and sixty school going children and her outfit has organized a number of programs including ICT tuition and funds to assist children.

CaringKids International has already launched its grand education project “YOUTH FOR EXCELLENCE SERVICE” (YES). The rationale behind the project is mainly to generate funds for children to continue their education to the SHS and beyond. Under the project, the organization is currently embarking on “Clean Ghana for Computers” (CGC) programme. This avenue will encourage corporate bodies or participating companies to reimburse a percentage of their brands profit to the education fund as their wastes i.e. cans, bottles, wrappers etc are presented as proof of purchase by consumers.

As value is put on waste in this programme, it will eventually encourage environmental cleanliness in the society as well as generating funds for children to continue their education at the SHS level.