The Ghana National Association of Teachers is recommending that failed basic school leavers be given an opportunity to re-sit Basic Education Certificate Examinations to improve their results. About 50 percent of students who took the BECE this year failed to make the grade required to move on to either secondary or technical institutions. GNAT says since there is no opportunity for re-sit, the future of those who failed might be in jeopardy. President of the association Joseph Adjei said several factors, other than poor academic performance, could be responsible for students’ unsatisfactory performance in exams. “I believe the policy must be revisited. I believe they must be given the second chance to write. May be the circumstances under which they wrote the examination was also a factor,” he stressed. Meanwhile, officials of the Education Ministry say it is not surprising that so many students cannot progress to the next level of education. The Public Affairs Manager of the Education Ministry, Paul Krampah, tells Joy News that these candidates can gain admission into private schools. “It doesn’t mean that the other 50 have failed, no they haven’t failed; they have other options available to them,” he emphasized. Mr Krampah recommends that students who fail to obtain the aggregate 30 mark for admission into other institutions, pursue vocational and technical schools. Meanwhile, the Advocacy Officer of the Ghana National Educational Coalition, Kofi Asare, says getting more trained teachers would help improve the BECE results across the country. He said lack of academic facilities is another problem government must immediately work on. Former DG of the Ghana Education Service, Michael Nsowah said very little could be done to improve on the situation. He however dismissed suggestions that failed basic school levers do not have the opportunity to re-sit. Mr Nsowah said the students have only, out of fear, refused to take advantage of the programme. Story by Elvis Adjetey/Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana