The Executive Director of African Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has called for Ghana’s Free Senior High School (SHS) policy to be restructured to ensure a smooth transition from Junior High School (JHS) to secondary education. He said the policy should ultimately guarantee universal access to secondary education by eliminating qualification barriers that prevent some students from progressing from JHS to SHS.
His comments come amid growing concerns about the transition of students from basic to second-cycle education following the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Approximately 55,000 candidates who sat the examination were not eligible for automatic placement into senior high or senior high technical schools.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, September 7, Mr Asare said Ghana should work towards a system in which every student who successfully completes JHS is able to proceed to secondary education.
According to him, countries that have implemented free secondary education have generally moved towards universal access to secondary education as a minimum requirement for human capital development. He argued that Ghana’s Free SHS policy should follow a similar approach, ensuring that completion of JHS provides a direct pathway to secondary education rather than depending on placement criteria that exclude some students.
Mr Asare added that ensuring universal transition from JHS to SHS should form part of broader discussions on improving the effectiveness and impact of the Free SHS policy. “We should have now positioned our secondary education system to a universal secondary education system where between Junior High School Three and Senior High School One, it’s a seamless transition without qualification that ends up disqualifying some.”
