Excuses Will Not Educate A Child – Afenyo-Markin

Minority Leader Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin has called on the government to stop explaining Ghana’s education crisis and fix it immediately, warning that more than 200,000 young Ghanaians are at risk of being left behind at both ends of the secondary school system — even as authorities engage in blame-shifting instead of urgent action.

“Excuses will not educate a child. Government must stop explaining the crisis and fix it now,” the Effutu MP declared in a hard-hitting statement that lays bare the scale of the national emergency.

“Nearly 50,000 families are stranded by the BECE placement crisis. Another 180,000 families are counting the cost of failure at the WASSCE level. Parents are distressed. Children are anxious. Teachers are overwhelmed”, Osahen Afenyo-Markin noted in a statement he posted on his official Facebook page.

The Minority Leader’s intervention comes as recent West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results reveal that 183,233 young people completed secondary school without a credit in Core Mathematics, while the credit pass rate in English Language fell to 62.40 per cent being its lowest level in four years. Performance in both subjects remains below the levels recorded in 2024.

At the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level, nearly 55,000 candidates were initially denied automatic placement, with reports of children wrongly placed in special schools and others arriving at their assigned schools only to find no space.

Yet government’s own figures show 859,828 vacancies for 623,072 candidates, while 85 private schools participating in Free SHS also have capacity. “A self-placement portal is not a school place; every child needs an actual seat in a functioning classroom,” Afenyo-Markin said.

The Minority Leader demanded that government publish the final placement outcomes, explain the rules and pass marks applied, properly fund teaching and remedial programmes, and provide clear pathways into TVET, apprenticeships and skills training for those who did not obtain the required WASSCE credits.

” Government must stop reacting only when problems become public. It must publish the final placement outcomes, explain the rules and pass marks applied, properly fund teaching and remedial programmes, and provide clear pathways into TVET, apprenticeships and skills training for those who did not obtain the required WASSCE credits. Mahama government is expected to treat this as a major national crisis requiring immediate action and lasting solutions.,” Afenyo-Markin noted and called for “a critical national conversation on education” that rises above partisan excuses.

Afenyo-Markin noted that the NPP expanded access through Free SHS and created Free TVET, apprenticeship and skills-development opportunities “because we believe no Ghanaian child should be denied a future by poverty or one set of examination results.”

“The 54,985 BECE candidates need real school places; the 183,233 WASSCE graduates need a second chance,” Afenyo-Markin said, addressing the President directly: “Mr. President, parents are worried, children are anxious and teachers are under pressure. When our children’s education is in crisis, Ghana’s future is in danger. The time to act is now.”