By Jensen B. A. Cummings
Sierra Leone has conducted the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for many years, and every year thousands of pupils sit the examination at the end of their junior secondary education. It has become such a familiar part of our education system that very few people stop to ask whether it is still serving the purpose for which it was originally designed. We have accepted BECE as a normal part of the educational calendar, but perhaps the time has come to ask a very simple question: Is BECE still necessary, or has it become another expensive exercise that government continues to fund without receiving the intended benefits?
This is not an argument against examinations, nor is it an attack on the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, WAEC, teachers or the thousands of pupils who sit BECE. It is an argument about whether public money is being used effectively and whether the education system is giving children the opportunities that correspond with their abilities.
The original thinking behind BECE was understandable. After three years of junior secondary education, children are expected to demonstrate different levels of academic ability, interests and aptitude. Those who are academically inclined would proceed to senior secondary school, sit WASSCE and, if successful, continue to university or other tertiary institutions. Those whose abilities are more practical, technical or vocational would be identified and directed towards technical and vocational education and training. In that sense, BECE was supposed to do more than simply examine children. It was supposed to help the education system determine which pathway was most appropriate for each child.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with that philosophy. In fact, it is exactly the kind of thinking a modern education system should embrace. Not every child has the same ability, the same interest or the same talent. Some children are academically gifted. Others are practically gifted. Some are creative. Some are entrepreneurial. Some have exceptional technical abilities. Education should identify those differences and develop them.
The problem, however, is what happens after the child has been identified.
If a child is considered better suited for technical or vocational education after junior secondary school, where does that child go? Where are the properly equipped technical institutions? Where are the modern workshops? Where are the tools and equipment? Where are the qualified instructors? Where are the regular and credible technical examinations? Where is the certification system? Where is the clear route from technical training to employment, entrepreneurship and higher education?
These are not minor questions. They go to the very heart of whether BECE is achieving its purpose.
I have personally raised this issue before. In one of my earlier publications on technical and vocational institutions in Sierra Leone, I questioned the state and functionality of institutions that are supposed to provide technical and vocational education to our young people. My argument was that we cannot continue to speak passionately about the importance of technical and vocational education while failing to provide the institutions, facilities, equipment and systems necessary to make that education meaningful. That concern is even more relevant when we consider the purpose of BECE.
Imagine telling a child that his or her strengths are better suited to technical education, only for the child and parents to discover that the available technical institutions are inadequate, poorly equipped, difficult to access or unable to provide a clear and reliable route to certification and employment. What will the child do? What will the parents do? They will naturally turn back towards the academic system, because that is the pathway that appears more established and socially acceptable.
And this brings us to the biggest contradiction in our education system.
If BECE is supposed to separate children into appropriate educational pathways, but the technical and vocational pathway is not sufficiently developed, then many of the children who should have been encouraged to follow the practical route will end up pursuing the academic route and eventually sitting WASSCE.
We then have to ask: What exactly did the separation at BECE achieve?
A child who is not naturally suited to the academic pathway may continue to senior secondary school, struggle with the curriculum, eventually sit WASSCE and fail. Some may repeat. Some may drop out. Others may become frustrated by the pressure to obtain WASSCE results. And when examination results become the gateway to further education and employment, the temptation to cheat can become greater.
We should therefore be careful before concluding that every child who struggles with WASSCE is simply academically weak. Some children may have been placed on the wrong educational pathway from the beginning.
A child who struggles with academic examinations may have extraordinary practical ability. That child may become an excellent mechanic, electrician, builder, welder, carpenter, agricultural technician, ICT technician, caterer, fashion designer or entrepreneur. The fact that a child does not perform exceptionally well in an academic examination does not mean that the child lacks intelligence or potential.
Different ability does not mean lesser ability.
Unfortunately, our society has often created the impression that university education is the ultimate measure of success, while technical and vocational education is reserved for those who have failed academically. That mentality must change.
Sierra Leone needs university graduates, and nobody should dispute that. We need doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, economists, engineers, scientists and other professionals. But we also need mechanics, electricians, plumbers, builders, welders, agricultural technicians, ICT specialists, artisans, caterers, fashion designers and entrepreneurs. These people are not less important to national development. In many cases, they are the people who keep the economy functioning every day.
The university graduate and the skilled technician should not be placed in competition with each other. They should complement each other.
This is why the condition of our technical and vocational education system must be at the centre of the BECE discussion.
There has been public concern about the regularity, accessibility and effectiveness of technical and vocational examinations and certification in recent years. I would, however, be cautious about saying categorically that no TVET examinations have been conducted for six years without official records confirming such a claim. The stronger argument is that the TVET pathway has not been sufficiently visible, accessible and functional to play the role that many people expect it to play in separating and preparing young people for different careers.
Government should therefore publish the facts. How many pupils complete junior secondary education every year? How many enter TVET? How many complete their training? How many obtain recognised qualifications? How many enter employment? How many become entrepreneurs? How many proceed to higher technical education? And how many eventually return to the academic route and sit WASSCE?
These figures would tell us much more about the effectiveness of our education system than simply knowing how many pupils sat BECE.
There is also a financial question that taxpayers deserve to have answered.
BECE costs money. Government spends money on registration, administration, logistics, examination materials, security, invigilation, marking and the publication of results. In a country where government has many competing demands and limited resources, we must ask whether this expenditure is producing the outcomes that were intended.
This does not mean that government should stop investing in education. Far from it. Sierra Leone needs greater investment in education. But the question is whether our limited resources are being invested in the areas that will produce the greatest benefit.
If government is spending money on BECE to identify children for technical and vocational pathways, but those pathways are not sufficiently developed, perhaps some of the resources could be redirected towards building and equipping the very institutions those children are supposed to attend.
What is the point of identifying a child as technically gifted if there is nowhere adequate to develop that talent?
That is where the debate about BECE becomes much bigger than BECE itself.
I am not suggesting that BECE should be abolished tomorrow. That would be too simplistic. Instead, I believe BECE should be subjected to a serious national review. Government should examine its original purpose, its current function, its cost and its outcomes.
Perhaps BECE should be redesigned into a broader assessment that looks not only at academic performance but also at practical skills, creativity, problem-solving, technical aptitude and career interests. Rather than simply telling a child whether he or she has passed or failed, the assessment could help answer a more important question: What is this child good at, and which educational pathway gives this child the best opportunity to succeed?
But assessment reform alone will not solve the problem. Sierra Leone must simultaneously strengthen the alternatives.
If we want children to enter TVET, then TVET institutions must be properly equipped. If we want technical education to contribute to employment, then training must be connected to industry. If we want parents to respect vocational education, then vocational qualifications must be credible. If we want young people to choose technical careers, those careers must offer real opportunities for decent livelihoods.
Most importantly, TVET must not become a dead-end pathway.
A child who enters technical education should be able to obtain a recognised qualification, enter employment or establish a business, and, if he or she wishes, continue into higher technical education or even university. Education pathways should connect rather than isolate people permanently.
The real problem, therefore, is not necessarily BECE. The real problem is whether the entire educational system surrounding BECE is working.
We need to stop asking only how many children passed BECE and begin asking what happened to those children afterwards.
Where did they go?
What did they study?
How many completed their education?
How many obtained qualifications?
How many found employment?
How many created businesses?
How many dropped out?
And how many were simply pushed into another examination, particularly WASSCE, because the alternative pathway was not available?
These are the questions that government, parents, educators and policymakers should be debating.
Perhaps it is also time to stop measuring the success of our education system primarily by examination results.
Education is not supposed to produce examination candidates alone. It is supposed to produce knowledgeable, skilled, responsible and productive citizens.
If a young person can repair an engine, construct a building, install an electrical system, produce food, operate machinery, create software, design clothing, provide professional catering services or establish a successful business, that young person has acquired something of tremendous value.
Every child does not need a university degree.
But every child deserves a meaningful pathway to a productive and dignified future.
That is why the BECE question deserves national attention.
If BECE continues to serve a genuine purpose, let us retain it and improve it.
If it needs to be redesigned, let us redesign it.
If another assessment system can achieve the same objective more effectively and at lower cost, let us have the courage to consider it.
But what we should not do is continue conducting an examination simply because it has always been part of the system while failing to examine whether the system itself is working.
We cannot continue testing children for educational pathways that we have not adequately built.
Sierra Leone must therefore have an honest national conversation about BECE, TVET, WASSCE and the entire transition from junior secondary to further education and employment.
The question is no longer simply whether a child has passed BECE.
The question is whether, after BECE, Sierra Leone has created a pathway through which that child can discover his or her ability, acquire the right skills and build a productive future.
If we cannot answer that question, then perhaps it is time to reconsider not only BECE, but the way we think about education itself.
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Monday, 7th September 2026 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
