Former Headmaster of Kumasi High School, Mr Bernard Hall-Baidoo, has urged private schools across the country to familiarise themselves with the new Ghana Education Service (GES) curriculum to improve teaching and learning outcomes.
He said effective implementation of the curriculum would enable private schools to improve their academic performance and compete more favourably with public schools in external examinations.
Mr Hall-Baidoo stressed that teacher quality remained a key factor in improving students’ academic performance, urging private school authorities to employ competent teachers and provide them with opportunities to continuously upgrade their knowledge.
“Private schools must employ more quality teachers who are ready to equip themselves with knowledge and keep abreast of the new curriculum,” he said in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Otec FM.
He added that teachers should not depend solely on traditional teaching methods but must understand the demands of the current curriculum and translate them effectively into classroom instruction.
“When teachers understand the curriculum and are properly equipped to teach it, the students will benefit, and that will ultimately reflect in their performance in external examinations,” he stated.
Mr Hall-Baidoo further cautioned that private schools could continue to struggle to match the performance of public schools if they failed to address challenges surrounding teacher quality and curriculum implementation.
“Until we do this, public schools will continue to record better grades in WAEC examinations because they have trained and better-equipped teachers,” he emphasised.
His comments come amid concerns raised by the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) over the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results.
GNAPS has accused the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) of grading discrepancies and called for an audit of the provisional results, citing cases in which some results allegedly failed to reflect candidates’ expected academic performance.
WAEC, however, has rejected allegations that it deliberately disadvantaged candidates from private schools, insisting that all candidates are assessed as one cohort under the same standards.
In response to the controversy, Mr Hall-Baidoo said private schools should also focus on strengthening their internal teaching systems and improving teacher capacity.
“Rather than concentrating only on the grading system, private schools must look at what happens in the classroom and ensure that the teachers and students are adequately prepared,” he said.
