Former Ministry of Education Public Relations Officer, Kwesi Kwarteng, has urged the government to review the current Senior High School (SHS) placement criteria to create opportunities for more BECE candidates to continue their education.

He is particularly advocating a gradual reversal of the requirement that candidates must pass both English Language and Mathematics to qualify for placement in Senior High Schools (SHSs) and Senior High Technical Schools (SHTSs).

His call follows the exclusion of nearly 55,000 candidates who sat for the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from the SHS/SHTS placement process.

According to the Coordinator of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat, Sherif Sulemana, approximately 565,000 out of the nearly 620,000 candidates who took the examination met the requirements for placement.

But speaking on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue, Mr Kwarteng argued that the number of candidates left out should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that they failed the BECE.

He attributed much of the exclusion to the placement criteria currently being applied by the government.

“My point is that if you look at the 54,000 [about 55,000] students that have been denied access to the senior high schools, it has nothing to do with students failing necessarily, but has more to do with the placement policy that this government is using.

“Instead of creating barriers that limit students and prevent access for those students, I think we should be very progressive and reverse back to the earlier placement policies that we have,” he said.

Calls for return to previous criteria

Mr Kwarteng explained that under the previous NPP administration, students who failed one of the two subjects but passed the other could still secure placement and receive the opportunity to improve their performance at the secondary level.

“When we were in government, the placement policy that we were using was that if a student fails English and passes Mathematics, that student is given an opportunity to proceed to the senior high to justify himself,” he said.

“If a student fails Mathematics but passes English, the student is given an opportunity to justify himself,” he added.

He said the current requirement has effectively introduced a stricter condition that prevents candidates from progressing if they fail either of the two subjects.

“But the current situation is that if you fail either English or Mathematics, you are not given an opportunity. In our case, what was happening is that if you pass any one of them, you go. But this time, they are saying that you have to pass the two,” Mr Kwarteng said.

According to him, the policy risks shutting out students who may have the capacity to perform well at the SHS level if given the chance.

“I am not a fan of systems and policies that intentionally set barriers for ordinary Ghanaian students,” he said.

Pass in one core subject should be enough

Mr Kwarteng proposed that candidates who demonstrate competence in at least one of the two subjects should be allowed to proceed to secondary school.

“So that if you pass either English or Mathematics, you are given the opportunity. And this time around, this whole policy about you having to pass the two of them is just a policy that the government has introduced,” he said.

He further suggested that the current criteria could be functioning as an indirect cut-off mechanism, potentially aimed at controlling the number of students entering SHS amid concerns over the cost of providing secondary education.

Mr Kwarteng argued that the debate should therefore go beyond students’ examination results and examine the policy decisions determining access to secondary education.

“It is not the student performing; it is a government discriminatory policy that has caused a barrier,” he said.

Education policy should create opportunities

The former Education Ministry PRO also drew comparisons with tertiary education, arguing that students who fall short of certain academic requirements in Ghana can sometimes perform successfully when given opportunities to study elsewhere.

He cited instances where students with D7 grades who are unable to gain admission to universities in Ghana have secured places at institutions outside the country and subsequently returned to Ghana to practise professionally.

For him, such examples demonstrate the importance of creating pathways that allow students to develop their abilities instead of permanently shutting them out based on a single academic requirement.

Mr Kwarteng also questioned whether financial considerations were influencing the government’s approach to SHS placement.

He expressed doubts about whether the government could completely eliminate the double-track system while simultaneously expanding access to secondary education.

He argued that if the government is using placement restrictions to manage expenditure, it should be open about the reasons behind the policy.

“The entire aim is that if we cannot get so much money to take care of students at the senior high school level, we made so much noise about double track,” he said.

Mr Kwarteng therefore reiterated his call for a review of the placement requirements, insisting that students who pass at least one of the two core subjects should be given an opportunity to continue their education at the SHS level.