GETTING D7 IN WASSCE SHOULD NOT BE A BARRIER TO
TERTIARY EDUCATION – EDUCATION MINISTER
Education Minister, Dr
Yaw Osei Adutwum, is charging public tertiary institutions to allow students
who obtain grade D7 in WASSCE have access to tertiary education.
According to the
Minister, the institutions must create access for such students through
innovative programmes.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum
does not understand why the Education journey of students must be curtailed
simply because they had a grade D7 in WASSCE.
Speaking at the
swearing in and inauguration of Governing Councils of some public technical
Universities, the Minister charged the schools to innovate and create access
programmes for such students.
“Our gross tertiary
enrollment ratio is 18.8%, South Korea is 73.6%, so no nation has been able to
show transformation without hitting 40 to 50% tertiary enrollment ratio.
“Mauritius is 40%, you
go there and everything is changing. Our 18% will not change Ghana and that is
why the President has set an agenda of 40%, what it also means is that you have
to start looking at your programmes, more diploma programmes so that students
sitting home with D7 will find a place in your institution.”
“There are institutions
that are saying we are not getting the numbers but what happened to supporting
students offering courses in diploma, electrical engineering and after that
you’re going to see the numbers going up and after that they can go to work.
And then if they want to continue they can continue. So we shouldn’t see D7 as
a barrier for students accessing tertiary.”
Currently, most public
Universities have set C6 as the least grade a student can get in the West
African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to qualify for
enrollment.
Whilst some have
questioned this, much change has not been made to the requirement as many
students have to rewrite such courses to be able to enroll in tertiary
institutions.
According to Dr.
Adutwum, such students must have the opportunity to prove themselves.