Students who fail to make the accepted grades in the Junior Secondary High School exam can re-sit, a Senior Public Officer at the West Africa Examination council has said. “If candidates want to re-sit they would have to write the entire ten papers again and enroll at their former school, because there is no private candidate examination at the basic level due to the compilation of the continuous assessment.” Agnes Tei Cudjoe made this revelation in an interview with Joy news’ Evans Mensah on Thursday. 38 percent of candidates failed to make the accepted grades in last years Junior High School Examination with fears about what the future hold for them. Tei Cudjoe says falling standards in the English language has contributed to the poor performance. “The standard of English is poor, the students must improve their reading skills and follow instructions in the examination room” she recommended. Meanwhile, stakeholders are in disagreement over who takes responsibility for the poor performance, even though poor curriculum and bad parenting has been identified as the biggest nemesis Joy FM reporter solicited the opinions of stakeholders and the responses were varied. “Sometimes the government initiates educational policies without consulting the teachers. We are on the ground and know more about what pertains in the system.” A teacher remarked. “The children do not have time to learn, as the internet cafes increases the bad attitude of parents increases, the situation only becomes worse.” Another teacher noted. But some third year students took a swipe at their teachers. “Some of the teachers do not teach us well, some do not teach us the right thing, and because we don’t know, we assume it is right thing” One of the students snapped. “Some of the teachers teach us but when another teacher takes over the same subject, he teaches another thing and we become confused. When you ask for explanation they ignore us.” Another student noted “The teachers teach us but we don’t learn” another student confirmed.” Author: Nathan Gadugah