The Danquah Institute has learnt that out of the 376,859 candidates who sat this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination, 375,258, representing 99.6%, passed the exam and as such qualify for placement into Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Institutions. This was stated by the Ghana Education Service in yesterday’s edition of the Daily Graphic.

WAEC statistics show that in 1998, 60.36% of students passed the BECE. In 2008, this had increased to 62.16%. From 2009 to 2011, the BECE pass rates have declined, from 50.21% in 2009, 49.12% in 2010 and 46.93% in 2011. To say the least, from 46.93% to 99.6% the following year is mightily exceptional.

Whilst we are being told that 99.6% of students qualify for SHS placement, with only 1,601 students failing the examination, we have also learnt that the number of students who "failed" the BECE in one region alone is over 10,000, more than the stated national total! According to Mr Sule Seidu, the Upper East Regional Planning and Statistics Officer at the Ghana Education Service, only 5,229 (33%) students out of 15,743 students who sat the BECE in the Upper East Region passed the examination this year.

In fact he was specific in adding that only 33% obtained passed with grades ranging between 6 and 30.

There could be a simple explanation for this unusual leap in BECE pass rates from 46.93% in 2011 to 99.6% in 2012, which could be the relaxing of the pass aggregate from 30 to perhaps 42.

The most important thing, however, is that per this result, almost every child who sat this year’s BECE is good enough to move to senior high school. Therefore, the fundamental issue President Mahama and the NDC have to address, immediately, is how it is going to ensure every single Ghanaian child, who sat this year’s BECE is not denied access to senior high school education.

Government must tell parents, children and the whole country how they intend to absorb all 375,258 students into the SHS and TVET institutions.

This development brings into practical focus the New Patriotic Party’s policy of free compulsory senior high school education for all children. The NPP policy initiative of spending some GH¢25m a year to buy extra school buses for the main purpose of transporting day students to and from schools to make up for the short term problem of insufficient facilities may be applied immediately to deal with the unexpected situation that now faces us. Almost every qualified student now has two obstacles standing in their way of gaining senior secondary school education: access to a school and affordability.

We believe government must show initiative and respond competently to this unexpected good news of having almost every student who sat for this year's BECE qualifying for SHS. In our view, if it means employing a shift system nationwide to get every single one of the 376,859 children who passed a place in secondary school, let that be done.

We have also learnt that although senior high schools have reopened for the 2012/2013 academic year, they have not yet received the placement list for the admission of first year students. This may be because of the sheer numbers of students who passed the exam, and we hope all 376,859 students will be placed.

The Danquah Institute believes it will be a travesty, if for no fault of theirs, these children are denied access to SHS, when per the results they are qualified to gain admission. The NDC Government must respond to this now and tell Ghanaians how they are going to address this situation, as a matter of urgency.