The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has urged the government to permanently remove the requirement that prevents students who obtain F9 grades in core subjects from gaining admission to senior high school (SHS).
Kofi Asare said every child who completes basic education should have the opportunity to continue to secondary school, regardless of their performance in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
His call comes as concerns grow over the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), which has left about 55,000 BECE candidates outside the placement process.
The CSSPS Coordinator, Sherif Sulemana, said about 565,000 of the nearly 620,000 candidates who sat for the examination qualified for placement.
He explained that candidates who fail either English Language or Mathematics do not meet the current placement requirements.
However, Kofi Asare believes the policy should be reviewed to ensure that a student’s failure in one subject does not permanently prevent them from accessing secondary education.
He said the government should amend the Free SHS policy to make access to secondary education a guaranteed right for every child who completes basic school.
According to him, poor BECE performance is often linked to wider challenges within the education system, including teacher shortages, inadequate learning materials and poor infrastructure, particularly in deprived communities.
He argued that students should not be punished for weaknesses that may partly result from conditions beyond their control.
The debate has also attracted calls from other stakeholders for a review of the placement policy. NPP communications team member Kwesi Kwarteng, for instance, has called for a gradual reversal of the current system to allow more students who do not pass both English and Mathematics to enter secondary school.
Eduwatch is therefore calling for a permanent policy solution rather than temporary changes from one administration to another.
