In a typical biblical ‘Let my people go’ edict, Education Minister, Alex Tettey Enyo has instructed education authorities in the Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi to do all they need to get some 106 final-year students of the Christ the King International School there to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The 2009 BECE started Monday morning but the 106 students are barred from taking part because their school authorities failed to complete their registration after collecting GH¢15.00 fees per student for the purpose.

The proprietor, one Mr. Adu Gyamfi and Mr. Agyenim Boateng, head teacher have been arrested by the police and are to be sent to court on a provisional charge of stealing.

The Education Minister’s intervention followed frantic telephone calls by Youth and Sports Minister, Alhaji Mubarak Mutaka, who, informed of the fate of the students by Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, said the children must not be made to suffer.

Kojo had spent quite a chunk of his programme space trying to get in touch with the Education Minister and others in authority for a solution to the fix, but all he got were explanations why it was too late for the students to be allowed to write the exam. Excuses had ranged from the ‘lack of index numbers’, ‘registration fees’ and ‘computerized procedures.’

Alhaji Mubarak, guest of the radio programme, was dismayed in his condemnation of what he said was a keen desire by people in authority to explain situations and offer excuses instead offering solutions. And after a number of phone calls, he announced that the Education Minister has asked the regional Ghana Education Service to ensure that the affected students get to write all the papers in the examination.

The proprietor had told journalist, Elton John Brobbey of Luv FM that he duly submitted a compact disc containing the registration details of the affected students but was later told the disc was corrupted and so the information could not be accessed. This, he said, came to his notice when it was too late to register the students.

Interestingly, the school had generated its own examination index numbers for the candidates, reported Brobbey.

Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline