Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr. Charles Aheto-Tsegah has advised parents to stop focusing on Secondary School Education as the final point of call for their wards’ education, stressing that the inability to continue one’s education at the secondary school level should not be construed that one is a failure.

According to him, there are other educational institutions available especially for pupils who perform poorly and fail to gain admission into Senior Secondary Schools under Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS).

Whiles assuring students unlucky not to roped in under the CSSPS that “all hope is not lost”, the GES Deputy Director-General blamed the media for not offering a helping hand to the Ministry of Education in sensitizing parents enough regarding their ward’s education.

“…some of these children find themselves in another educational institutions; it does not mean they have failed…it is not a question of wanting to; it is a performance criteria and we are saying that we will not let anybody rush through secondary school because it is available and it is a must that everybody rush through it. We are too much obsessed with wanting to go into secondary School when we are not looking at how or the quality and caliber of children we are taking there. That is the point we should start thinking about as a country…it is time we woke up to that point…,” he said.

Speaking in an interview on Citi FM, Mr. Aheto-Tsegah disclosed that the GES is set to introduce an apprenticeship and skill development programme for students who perform poorly, adding that the pupils at the basic school level will be taken through lessons in competency, teamwork, problem solving, literacy and numeracy.

“For this reason, they can fit into any educational institution; not necessarily Secondary School,” he said.

He again reiterated that: “If you the journalist who are creating the perception that everybody must go to secondary school, change your mind set, you will be helping us significantly to begin to help parents understand that if your child does get aggregate 31 and does not get access into any Secondary School, the child is not a failure. No! The person has not failed,” the GES Deputy Director General said.