SSSCE to be held in May-June

The Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) will be conducted in May/June instead of July/August from the next academic year.

This is aimed at synchronising the senior secondary school academic calendar with that of other levels of pre-tertiary education systems in the country to enable Ghana to join the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) international programme which took off in 1998.

WASSCE is an international examination programme adopted by Anglophone West African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia and Liberia under which members will conduct examinations whose contents are of the same standard.

The acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr John Budu-Smith, announced this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Emmanuel Acquaye, the Director in-charge of Basic Education of GES, at the opening of the Eastern Regional Selection Committee Meeting at Koforidua on Wednesday.

The Heads and staff of 73 SSS and six technical institutions in the region are taking part in the two-day exercise.

He urged heads of institutions to continue charging the current fees until further notice.

On the issue of extremely low enrolment in less endowed secondary schools, Mr Budu-Smith stated that such ?non-viable? schools would soon be converted into technical and vocational institutions to provide practical skills training in purely vocational, technical and agricultural nature.

This, according to him, will provide alternative avenues and career opportunities which will further enhance the country?s poverty reduction and eradication programme. He also announced that the vocational programme comprising Home Economics and Visual Arts in Senior Secondary Schools has been re-organised to include an elective science subject or elective Mathematics to enable students offering such programmes to further their courses at tertiary levels.

He appealed to heads of institutions to exercise the highest sense of integrity in the selection exercise, adding that ?they should not admit candidates for programmes that have not been approved for their respective schools?.

The Regional Director of Education, Rev Ama Afo-Blay, in her welcoming address announced that out of a total number of 28,969 candidates who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in July, this year, 14, 963 qualified for admission into the institutions. In the Volta Region, the selection was done at Tsito Awudome, reports Tim Dzamboe.

The Director-General of the GES, heads of schools and staff of second cycle schools in the region attended the opening ceremony of the two-day conference.

In Accra, Golda Armah-Idan reports that the heads of senior secondary school have begun the selection at the Achimota Secondary School.

Some of the heads interviewed said contrary to their expectation the results were quite impressive, forcing most of them to raise their cut-off points.

The Headmaster of the Presbyterian Senior Secondary School, Legon, Mr Joseph Jectey Asare, said out of the 2050 applicants the school can take only 600.

He said last year 815 students out of the 2000 applicants were admitted and that this was an over-enrolment.

Mr Asare said the cut -off point for Science students is eight to 10 ones with aggregate six while Agricultural Science is six to 10 ones with aggregate six.

For Business, he said, seven ones to 10 ones while for General Arts the cut-off point is from seven to 10 ones. The headtmistress of Accra Girls Secondary School, Ms Veronica Akapome, said out of the 1,700 applicants 240 students will be admitted.

She said apart from the general pressure on the heads of schools, the real pressure comes after the selection has been made and undue pressure from top officials from government, the Ghana Education Service and old students associations, among others.

The Nungua Senior Secondary School Headmistress, Ms Kate Bannerman, who expressed similar sentiments, lauded the government?s initiative to computerise the selection process and said this will reduce the undue pressure on headmasters and headmistresses.

From Cape Coast, Shirly Quaicoe reports that the selection of candidates into SSS in the Central Region begun at the Aggrey Memorial Zion School with a call on the GES to approve reasonable fees for implementation to ensure the effective running of schools.

The Regional Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Ms Marie Agyeman, who made the call, said the fees are necessary to ensure that heads operate within the fee regulations of the GES and be better placed to bill the parents before the academic year begins on October 21, 2002.

This year, the venue for the exercise was changed from Mfantsipim School to Aggrey Memorial School ostensibly to avoid pressure from parents.

Many parents and guardians, some from the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions who had come to ensure their wards get placement in schools of their choice were refused entry into the school.

As usual, the "big" schools like Mfantsipim School, Wesley Girls High School, Holy Child School, Adisadel College and Ghana National College had their tables filled with more than 1000 applicants while less prestigious schools had virtually no candidates.

The cut-off point for the Sciences for schools like Adisadel, Mfantsipim and Wesley Girls is aggregate six with nine ones and six with seven ones for Arts. Mrs Agyeman gave the assurance that the heads would operate within the rules of the GES concerning admission into the schools.