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.