Bebuso R/C students prepare for BECE. With counterparts in Accra
All the six final year students of the Bebuso Roman Catholic Junior High School (JHS) at Donkorkrom in the Eastern Region have joined their mates at the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School at Airport in Accra to prepare for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in June.
Advertisement
The students are the second batch of candidates from the school to visit Accra to join their mates of the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School to study and acquaint themselves with teaching and learning in Accra to help improve on their performance.
Last year, the first batch of 12 students spent one week in Accra to study with the students of the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School and that significantly changed their attitudes to studies and enabled them to also use some of the facilities they lacked in their school at Bebuso but was available to their mates in Accra.
This time, therefore, the six BECE candidates would be at the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School for two weeks to enable them to have an even better opportunity.
The one-week exposure given to the students of the Bebuso RC JHS last year made a positive impact on the performance of the candidates in 2014 BECE.
Performance of students
The school, which recorded 100 per cent failures in the 2012 and 2013 BECE, recorded 50 per cent passes last year. In 2012 and 2013, the best candidates had aggregates 37 and 38 respectively. In 2014, however, the best candidate had aggregate 24 which was a significant difference.
The Parish Priest of the St Theresa’s Parish at Samanhyia in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern Region, Rev. Fr Stephen Sakpaku, who is the brain behind the initiative to let the students come to Accra to interact with their mates at the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School, said the authorities decided to reduce the number of candidates by selecting those who were academically good to help them excel.
“They were 14 in the class but it was decided that if a student didn’t score 50 per cent in the end-of-term examination in JHS two, then he or she would not be promoted. It was a strategy to ensure that as students progressed, they must do better so that if one is not doing well but gets 50 per cent, then it means that your lowest grade would be between three and four, which is better,” he explained.
Other Trending Stories
Sister Patricia Asante, headmistress of the Mary Mother of Good Counsel, said the less-privileged in society needed to be given such exposures to build their confidence.
Laudable initiative
The headmaster of the Bebuso JHS, Mr Victor Yao Amesi, lauded the initiative to bring the students to Accra.
The six students— Kekeli Avor Adzanko, Emmanuel Amegayaw, Francis Nkrumah Yeboah, Bernice Tome, Josephine Botchway and Jennifer Komendza told the Daily Graphic they used torchlights to study in the night because there was no power supply at Bebuso.
The students; three boys and three girls, expressed the hope of doing better than the candidates in their school did in the BECE last year, and thanked the students of the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School for their support. The three girls told the Junior Graphic they wanted to become nurses in order to take care of the sick, while the boys wanted to become journalists.
Cyril Effah, Kwaku Bosompem and Adubea Adu Badu, all from the Mary Mother of Good Counsel School, said their interactions with students from a less-privileged school had humbled them and they promised to give them whatever assistance they needed.
A benefactor, Mr John K. Amaniampong, Country Head of JTS Ghana Limited, is catering for the students during their two-week stay in Accra.