By Kofi Asare,Executive Director,Africa Education Watch,Ghana
Background
Before the introduction of Free SHS, the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) primarily functioned as a gatekeeping mechanism that determined whether a child could progress to secondary education. Admission into second cycle institutions depended heavily on aggregate performance, and for many candidates, BECE effectively separated progression from exclusion.
In that context, its broad, high stakes structure was aligned with a system in which access to secondary education was limited and competitive.
Emergence of the Free SHS Policy
The Free SHS policy fundamentally changed that logic. With secondary education becoming near universal for BECE candidates, the examination’s practical role shifted from determining who gains access to determining where students are placed.
Today, approximately 98 per cent of candidates qualify for secondary education, meaning BECE has largely transitioned from a proficiency barrier to a placement mechanism.
However, despite this major policy transformation, Ghana continues to maintain a 10 subject, 5 day examination model largely designed for a different era. This creates an important structural mismatch between the current purpose of the examination and its inherited design.
Mismatch Implications
This mismatch has both educational and fiscal implications. Ghana reportedly spends over GH¢200 million annually on the administration of BECE, covering logistics, printing, supervision, marking, coordination, and related operational costs.
For an examination that now functions primarily as a placement exercise rather than a major barrier to progression, this level of expenditure warrants serious policy reflection. A streamlined examination structure that reduces subject load while preserving core competencies could potentially cut costs significantly, with estimates suggesting possible savings of up to 40 per cent.
Such savings could be redirected toward pressing educational priorities including foundational literacy and numeracy, textbook provision, teacher deployment in underserved districts, or strengthening continuous assessment systems.
The continued requirement for candidates to sit 10 standalone subjects over five days also raises questions about efficiency and learner burden. If BECE’s principal function is now school placement, then its structure should logically reflect that purpose.
Need for a more Consolidated Model
A more focused model centred on English, Mathematics, Science, and an integrated General Paper covering the remaining learning areas could preserve curriculum breadth while reducing assessment overload, administrative complexity, and student stress. This would not imply lowering standards, but rather modernising assessment architecture to align with system realities.
Critiquing the reduction of Subjects Concerns
Concerns that reducing the number of examinable subjects may weaken educational quality deserve consideration, but such concerns should be grounded in evidence. There is limited proof that maintaining 10 separate subjects at BECE level inherently produces better learning outcomes than a more consolidated model.
Educational quality is more directly influenced by curriculum design, teacher effectiveness, pedagogy, formative assessment, and accountability systems than by examination volume alone.
Without evidence that the current structure delivers superior outcomes relative to its cost, preserving it may reflect historical continuity more than policy efficiency.
Lessons from Afar
International experience further suggests that lower secondary education does not necessarily require an expansive high stakes examination to maintain standards. Many systems with free or near universal secondary education rely more heavily on continuous assessment, standardised benchmarking, or later stage certification, often placing major high stakes assessments at the end of secondary education rather than at the transition point.
These models demonstrate that broad access and academic quality can coexist without excessive lower secondary examination burdens.
What Ghana Needs to do
Ghana therefore faces an important policy choice. It may either reform BECE to better reflect its current placement role by reducing and restructuring its subject framework, or gradually transition toward a more efficient system built around strengthened National Standardised Tests, credible continuous assessment, and a dedicated placement assessment. Either pathway would require robust safeguards to ensure fairness, national comparability, and public trust.
The BECE Should remain Debate
Ultimately, the debate is not just about whether BECE should remain, but whether its current structure remains proportionate, relevant, and cost effective in the era of Free SHS. When Ghana spends more than GH¢200 million annually on an examination whose primary role has shifted from exclusion to placement, reassessing value for money becomes both a fiscal and educational imperative.
Some Home Truths
The strength of an education system lies not in the volume of high stakes examinations it imposes, but in how effectively its assessment systems promote equity, efficiency, and meaningful learning.
In this new era, BECE reform is less about abolishing standards and more about aligning structure, expenditure, and purpose
