The Institute for Education Studies (IFEST-Ghana) has called on the Ministry of Education to urgently announce a clear intervention programme for approximately 55,000 candidates who were not placed in any Senior High School (SHS) or Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institution following the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
IFEST said the affected candidates risk falling out of the formal education system if government fails to provide them with an alternative pathway to continue their education.
In a press statement issued on Monday, September 7, 2026, the education policy think tank said the Ministry of Education must clarify what arrangements have been made to support the students and ensure that they are not left without an opportunity to progress.
According to IFEST, government has three possible options for addressing the situation.
The first is for the affected students to be absorbed into SHS or TVET institutions and placed on targeted intervention programmes focusing on literacy and numeracy. The organisation said this would allow the students to continue their education while receiving structured academic support to address learning gaps.
As a second option, IFEST proposed returning the students to the basic-school level under a coordinated remedial programme. The programme, it said, should provide intensive academic preparation to enable the students to resit the BECE either as private candidates or during the next main examination.
However, the organisation rejected what it described as a third option of simply leaving the students to their fate.
“Silence cannot be the policy,” IFEST said, stressing that every affected learner should have a clearly defined pathway to continue their education.
The organisation said the absence of a publicly communicated intervention was particularly concerning given Ghana’s efforts to expand access to secondary education and ensure that learners are not left behind.
IFEST warned that if the affected students are neither absorbed into SHS or TVET institutions, enrolled in structured remedial programmes nor given another opportunity to progress, thousands of young people could be excluded from further formal education.
The think tank therefore urged the Ministry of Education and relevant agencies to announce an intervention framework that is clear, coordinated and time-bound.
“Every learner deserves a pathway forward,” the organisation said.
The statement was signed by Peter Anti Partey, Executive Director of IFEST-Ghana.
