The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has called on the government to permanently scrap the use of F9 grades as a barrier to admission into senior high school (SHS).
According to him, every Ghanaian child who completes basic education should have the right to progress to secondary education regardless of their BECE results.
His comments come amid the ongoing 2026 Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) exercise, where 55,000 candidates did not qualify for placement primarily because they obtained a Grade 9 in either core English Language or Mathematics.
Mr Asare said while Eduwatch welcomes the government’s decision to allow students who obtain F9 grades to proceed to SHS, the policy should be formally embedded in the Free SHS framework to prevent changes from being made at the discretion of successive governments.
“We have recommended that government should amend or review the Free Senior High School policy document. The policy document must have enshrined in it the requirement to qualify for secondary education. We must waive that F9 thing there.
“There is no qualification to enter secondary education once one completes basic education, so that we don’t be going back and forth year by year, so that it becomes at the discretion of a politician that this year F9 will go, next year F9 will not go.”
Mr Asare maintained that denying students access to SHS because of poor BECE grades would be unfair, particularly because government has a responsibility to provide adequate teaching and learning conditions.
He noted that students who record F9 grades are disproportionately found in deprived areas, including the five northern regions, Oti and Western North.
According to him, challenges such as teacher shortages, inadequate textbooks and lack of basic furniture in some schools can contribute to poor academic outcomes.
“Until government provides adequate facilities across urban, peri-urban and deprived areas, you cannot punish pupils for having F9 in Maths and deny them an opportunity to enter Free Senior High School.”
“Every Ghanaian that completes basic school must enter secondary education regardless of their grades.”
He said Ghana should aspire to a system where no child is denied secondary education because of academic performance at the basic level.
Mr Asare also welcomed the current approach of allowing students who may have obtained F9 grades to proceed to SHS, describing it as a step towards ensuring universal access.
