The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Kwesi Yankah says scrapping the country's basic education system will not solve Ghana's education problems as suggested by the Convention Peoples's Party. He said what the system need most for a more durable fix, are massive provision and improvement in logistics and infrastructure for pupils. Prof Kwesi Yankah was Thursday on Joy FM's Super Morning Show, contributing to a suggestion by the CPP's 2008 presidential candidate, Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum for a total scrapping of the Basic Education Certificate Examination and making senior secondary education the termination point. The Pro-Vice Chancellor said there was the need to take a more retrospective look at the situation that bedevils the junior high level rather than scrapping it entirely. "He'll [Dr Ndoum] probably want to find out what appears to be mass failure at the JHS, in what particular regions this often takes place and what are the factors leading to that. It is after examining these factors that one can then look at the issue of the continuation of the JHS and subsequently to the tertiary level," he stated. Prof Yankah said the JHS system was instituted in order to train young people of school-going age with the requisite technical skills, especially for those who could not continue to senior high school. He however admitted that the BECE had its problems but was quick to add that the system should be improved, else, the movement of the termination point would boil down to the same problems bedevilling the current educational system. "I still maintain the fact that in the absence of these facilities, regardless of where you move the terminal level, the circumstances would prevail... and I think we should take a closer look at the circumstances rather than create other factors," he insisted. Dr Ndoum, who agreed with Prof Yankah's suggestion of improving the education sector, however, maintained that the JHS system was unsuitable to be the termination point of education. According to him, pupils after completing JHS were not mature enough for the job market and there was therefore the need to revise this trend and make senior secondary education at least the termination point. Citing Costa Rica as an example, he said the country is setting higher standards to education by aspiring to have a bachelor's degree as the terminal point and it was time for Ghana to take measurable steps in that direction. "Senior high school level, I believe would be a good point, but even there, once you get to that point, we will then have to then look ahead and aspire some more. "Because if you go to certain places like Costa Rica and other places in the world, people are now beginning to move up. Now the terminal point is becoming having a bachelor's degree," he said. Dr Ndoum also pointed to the deplorable educational resources as a major problem and bemoaned the slow pace of development in the education sector since the post-Nkrumah days. Story by Fidel Amaoh/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana