Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has challenged the government to address disparities in teaching and learning conditions across Ghana before using poor BECE grades to restrict students’ access to senior high school.
Executive Director of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, argued that pupils who obtain F9 grades, particularly in core subjects such as English Language and Mathematics, should not be denied the opportunity to continue their education when many of them come from schools facing significant resource constraints.
His comments come amid the 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) exercise, which left about 55,000 candidates without automatic placement, largely because they obtained Grade 9 in either English Language or Mathematics.
Mr Asare said the concentration of poor BECE outcomes in deprived parts of the country raises questions about whether students should bear the full consequences of weaknesses within the basic education system.
He identified the five northern regions, Oti and Western North among areas where students recording F9 grades are disproportionately represented.
According to him, shortages of teachers, inadequate textbooks and a lack of basic furniture in some schools can affect students’ academic performance and should be considered when decisions are made about their progression to secondary education.
“Until government provides adequate facilities across urban, peri-urban and deprived areas, you cannot punish pupils for having F9 in Maths and deny them an opportunity to enter Free Senior High School,” he said.
Mr Asare therefore called for a fundamental review of the Free SHS policy to remove F9 grades as a barrier to secondary education.
He said every child who successfully completes basic education should have the opportunity to progress to the secondary level regardless of their BECE results.
“Every Ghanaian that completes basic school must enter secondary education regardless of their grades,” he stressed.
While Eduwatch welcomed the government’s current decision to allow candidates with F9 grades to proceed to SHS, Mr Asare said the arrangement should not remain a temporary policy that could be changed by successive administrations.
He proposed that the requirement should be formally incorporated into the Free SHS policy framework so that access to secondary education would not depend on the position of a particular government.
“We must waive that F9 thing there,” he said, warning against a situation where one administration allows students with F9 grades to progress while another reverses the decision.
Mr Asare maintained that Ghana should move towards a secondary education system in which completion of basic education guarantees access to the next level, while government simultaneously strengthens teaching, learning resources and infrastructure to improve academic outcomes.
He said the current approach allowing students with F9 grades to proceed to SHS was a positive step towards universal access but stressed that it should ultimately become a permanent and predictable part of Ghana’s education policy.
