By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
From a total of 1,730 (One thousand, seven hundred and thirty) schools that enrolled for the 2023 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE), a school based in Koidu named Cluny Free the Children JSS topped this year’s exams.
The school had 100% of its candidates obtaining a minimum of 5 passes inclusive of Language Arts and Mathematics, with an average grade of 1.66.
The results were announced by the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), Conrad Sackey at the State Broadcaster on the 27th of October 2023.
The Minister noted that a total of 870 (eight hundred and seventy) schools saw all of their candidates successfully entering senior secondary school and a further 505 (five hundred and five) schools had 95.00% or more of their candidates also passing for senior secondary school.
He said the numbers are far better than in 2022 when a total of 322 (three hundred and twenty-two) schools saw all of their candidates passing for the senior secondary school general programme and a further 395 (three hundred and ninety-five) schools had 95.00% or more of their candidates also passing for senior secondary school. He added that many Government and Government -Assisted Schools performed extremely well, achieving a 100% success rate.
“There remain some variations in performance across subjects but just as in 2022, no subject had pass rates below 70%,” he said.
Minister Sackey stated that there remains a large variation in performance across districts, in terms of average grade/unit and pass rate for senior secondary school – in general. Notwithstanding, he said all districts performed better than in 2022 and all had SSS pass rates in excess of 90.00%.
He pointed out that the best district had an SSS pass rate of 98.91% and an average grade of 3.41. He however stated that Candidates from Guinea did not perform well as candidates from Sierra Leone but still performed better than in 2022 when they had a combined SSS pass rate of 77.61% and an average grade of 4.71.
BECE is taken at the end of three years of Junior Secondary School for one to enter Senior Secondary School. It is administered by the West African Examinations Council.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (01/11/23)
