Over 54,000 BECE Candidates Left Stranded Is Worrying, Don't Politicise It – Hon Barbara Ayisi

Spokesperson for the NPP Policy Secretariat, Hon. Barbara Asher Ayisi, says the situation where over 54,000 BECE candidates have been left without Senior High School placement is worrying and should not be politicised.

Speaking on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM's Frontline Show with Kwabena Agyapong, the former Deputy Minister for Education in charge of Basic Schools and TVET said the number of stranded students is a major problem.

The former Cape Coast North MP said figures since the NPP left office in 2024 show the current NDC government has not learned from past mistakes, with no improvement in the placement process.

"The current administration should have learned from mistakes the previous administration might have made to improve the process, but the situation is getting worse because they have not done anything about it," she said.

The New Patriotic Party has called on government to take immediate action to secure actual classroom placements for more than 200,000 students stranded after the release of the recent BECE and WASSCE results.

In a press statement signed by the Chairman of the NPP Policy Co-ordination Committee, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the party criticised government's handling of the computer placement and secondary education outcomes.

According to the NPP, 54,985 BECE candidates were initially informed they had not qualified for SHS, before government later directed 53,887 of them to access the self-placement portal. The party argues that access to an online portal does not guarantee physical placement in a school.

Hon. Ayisi called on government to find a lasting solution and give the students schools, noting that the NDC had promised over 859,000 vacancies but has failed to deliver.

She said nothing appears to have changed after students were asked to select schools after their results were released.

She called for a proper stakeholder engagement involving both the NPP and NDC to find a solution, warning that Ghana's educational system under the current government is deteriorating.