General News of Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Source: GNA

Stranded Christ the King students cannot write BECE - GES

Kumasi, April 21, GNA - The Ghana Education Service (GES) has ruled that it is impossible for the 106 students of the Christ the King Junior High School (JHS) at Ayigya in Kumasi, whom the school authorities failed to register for this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), to write the examination. "They have been technically ruled out of writing the West African Examinations Council (WAEC)-organised examination since they do not have continuous assessment, registration and index numbers", Mrs. Gladys Amaning, Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Education, told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.

She said following the allege misappropriation of registration fees of the students by the school authorities, the GES in collaboration with parents of the affected students and stakeholders had an emergency meeting to deliberate on the issue.

Mrs. Amaning said "During the meeting we reached a consensus that the affected students be distributed among some schools in the Metropolis to enable them to register for next year's examination". She said the situation was unfortunate and reminded parents that it was their responsibility to scrutinize educational institutions before sending their children there to avoid future occurrence. Mrs Amaning encouraged the affected students not to despair but to be serious with their studies.

Mr Agyenim Boateng and Prince Adu-Gyamfi, headteacher and proprietor, respectively, who misappropriated the students' registration fees, had been remanded into prison custody by a circuit court in Kumasi, to reappear next week.