The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has hinted that West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) graduates will soon provide a Senior High School (SHS) testimonial before being granted admission to any tertiary institution in the country.
Speaking at the 2024 Ghana Teacher Prize, the Education Minister said the move forms part of the Ministry in Charge of Education’s effort to curb the increasing rate of student violence particularly in various second-cycle schools.
“We want zero tolerance for indiscipline in our high schools. The era when students go on a rampage destroying school properties will soon be over because we are going to be working with tertiary institutions to ensure that when you’re moving from high school to the university or training college, you will provide a testimonial that will state your character. Indiscipline should not be tolerated anywhere in our schools”, he stated.
The introduction of testimonial as a tertiary admission requirement follows concerns about the growing indiscipline among Senior High School students under the Free Senior High School programme which in recent times has been a public topic
Recently, Edward Sackey, a final-year O’Reilly Senior High School student who was partaking in the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates was stabbed to death by his colleague on campus.
The deceased General Arts student who was pronounced dead on arrival at the LEKMA hospital after the stabbing a few hours after writing a paper for the WASSCE was reportedly engaged in an argument with a colleague over whose father was richer.
Speaking to the media, the family said doctors of the LEKMA Hospital, where the deceased was pronounced dead on arrival, said that the late Edward Sackey would have had a chance of surviving if he had been brought to the hospital earlier.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) launched an administrative investigation into the stabbing to death of Edward Sackey, a final-year student of the O’Reilly Senior High School but findings of what caused the unfortunate incident are yet to be made public.
In a press statement sighted by Pretertiary.com and signed by the spokeswoman for the Ghana Education Service, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, it said the Ghana Police Service was handling the criminal aspect of the case.