The Executive Director of the AngloGold Ashanti School, Simon Peter Attah-Cato has appealed to the government and WAEC to reconsider the date for the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). He said the students who will be writing the BECE in 2023 spent their first 4 months in JHS 1 learning the Common Core Curriculum in 2020 as directed by the government. They were later asked to revert to the old curriculum.
Simon Peter Attah-Cato made this appeal during the 7th Graduation ceremony of the school where 625 students from different grades graduated.
“We are told BECE for next year will be written in June/July 2023. In fact, the students who are moving to the final year were students who were mostly affected by COVID” he said.
“When schools reopened (in 2020), the government communicated to schools that because they(the students) have started a new curriculum from class 6, they were also supposed to continue with the common core curriculum. So for four months, they concentrated on the common core curriculum” he added.
He also revealed that, around June of 2020, the government recommunicated that they should go back to the old curriculum.
“…so they spent only 6 months treating the old curriculum before they were promoted to JHS 2” Attah-Cato narrated.
The Executive Director of AGA School also mentioned that since next year will be the last time students will be required to write BECE as an examination before entering Senior high schools, there is no need to be in a haste.
“WAEC should reconsider it and we do not think we should be in haste. This will allow us time to prepare the students adequately… so that they are able to complete the curriculum from JHS 1 to JHS 3” he concluded.
Since 2020, final-year students at the junior high school have written their BECE in September and October but new reports suggest the date for the exams in 2023 will be moved back to June/July as previously done before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Other News
AGA School Has Recorded Best BECE Results Since 2018
The Executive Director of the school Simon Peter Attah-Cato said the school has chalked a lot of successes in the past years thanks to the professionalism on the part of teachers.
He said since 2018, the school has recorded the best BECE results in the Ashanti Region and one of the best in the country.
He added that in the past four years, the school has bagged two presidential awards making it a force to reckon with in the country as far as education was concerned.
” In 2021, of the 138 students we presented for the BECE, 134 of them obtained aggregate 6 to 12 representing 97%. Four (4) of them had between agreegate 13-15. We promise not to rest on oars but will make conscious efforts to exceed performances in the previous years”.
Eric Asubonteng the Managing Director of Anglogold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine said the school has over the years become the center of excellence in education in the Ashanti Region which stakeholders can be proud of.
He said currently 80% of students in the school are wards of non- employees of the mine gradually giving opportunities for people in and around Obuasi to have access to the school.
He pledged AGA’s commitment to maintain the enviable reputation of the school by supporting in a sustainable way as an autonomous entity to serve the community.