Ghana’s Education Minister has unveiled a package of reforms that could significantly reshape the experience of basic school students across the country — starting with a fundamental change to how the Basic Education Certificate Examination is structured and delivered.
Speaking at Aburi Girls Senior High School on June 10, Haruna Iddrisu announced that the BECE, long confined to a punishing Monday-to-Friday schedule, will be extended from five days to eight under a revised timetable currently being developed by the government. The announcement was accompanied by updates on school feeding improvements and a major infrastructure expansion awaiting World Bank approval — painting a picture of an education sector the minister says is finally moving in the right direction.
Ending the Five-Day Exam Sprint
For years, BECE candidates have faced one of the more gruelling stretches in Ghana’s academic calendar — five consecutive days of examinations, with barely any breathing room between papers. The format has drawn criticism from educators, parents, and students alike, who argue that the compressed schedule leaves candidates exhausted and poorly positioned to perform at their best, particularly in the later stages of the exam week.
Iddrisu acknowledged this problem directly. “I understand that our schedule of the exams for BECE was just Monday to Friday, and that put many of you under some stress,” he told the audience. The proposed solution is a restructured calendar that spreads the examination across eight days rather than five, beginning on a Wednesday and concluding the following Wednesday.
The design is deliberate. By starting mid-week and running into the next, students will have a weekend built into the middle of their examination period — a meaningful pause that gives them time to rest, review, and regroup before tackling the remaining papers. For candidates sitting multiple subjects with heavy content demands, that break could make a tangible difference in preparation and performance.
The minister confirmed that the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service will oversee the rollout of the revised timetable, signalling that implementation planning is already underway. While a specific start date for the new format has not yet been publicly confirmed, the announcement suggests the government intends to move quickly.
The change reflects a broader shift in thinking about student welfare within the examination system — a recognition that how an exam is structured affects not just logistics but outcomes. Overhauling a timetable may seem like a technical adjustment, but for the hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian students who sit the BECE each year, it could represent a genuinely less stressful and more equitable testing environment.
School Feeding Turns a Corner
Beyond the BECE reforms, Iddrisu used the occasion to highlight what he described as a notable improvement in food supply across senior high schools — an issue that has historically generated significant controversy under the Free Senior High School programme.
Food shortages in boarding schools have been a recurring source of frustration for students, parents, and school administrators since the Free SHS policy was introduced. Complaints about inadequate or inconsistent meals have periodically surfaced in the media, reflecting the challenges of managing a large-scale, government-funded feeding programme across hundreds of institutions nationwide.
The minister suggested those challenges are finally being addressed. “I’m also happy to note that at least for the first time in many years we are not suffering from food shortages in school,” he said. He attributed the improvement to the government’s decision to remove the cap on the Ghana Education Trust Fund, commonly known as GETFund. With that restriction lifted, GETFund is now channelling resources through the Ghana Commodity Exchange and the Buffer Stock Company to ensure schools are adequately provisioned.
“The feeding component of the free senior high school is now being managed well with GETFund funding,” Iddrisu stated. He further disclosed that the government has allocated four billion Ghana cedis specifically for student feeding this year alone — a significant commitment that, if sustained, could help eliminate the supply inconsistencies that have long plagued school kitchens.
The decapping of GETFund represents a structural policy shift rather than a one-off injection of funds, which means the improvement in feeding conditions — if it holds — may prove more durable than previous attempts to patch the problem through short-term allocations.
A $300 Million Infrastructure Bet
Perhaps the most ambitious announcement of the day concerned physical infrastructure. Iddrisu revealed that the government is expecting the World Bank to approve a major infrastructure expansion programme at a board meeting scheduled for June 16 — just days away at the time of his speech.
The programme, valued at $300 million, is centred on upgrading the classification and facilities of schools across Ghana. Under the plan, thirty Category C schools would be elevated to Category B status, while twenty Category B schools would be upgraded to Category A. The distinction between school categories in Ghana’s public education system carries real consequences for students — higher-category schools typically offer better facilities, more experienced staff, and a broader range of academic and extracurricular programmes.
If the World Bank gives the green light as anticipated, the funds would finance expanded classrooms, improved amenities, and enhanced learning environments at fifty institutions across the country. Category A schools, which already sit at the top of the public school hierarchy, would also benefit from additional targeted investment under the initiative.
The scale of the proposed programme is substantial. Upgrading fifty schools simultaneously requires not just capital but careful planning, transparent procurement, and sustained oversight to ensure that funds translate into genuine improvements on the ground rather than stalled construction projects. The involvement of the World Bank, which typically imposes rigorous monitoring conditions on projects it finances, may help provide some of that structural accountability.
A Busy Day in Aburi
The breadth of the minister’s announcements — spanning examination reform, feeding policy, and infrastructure investment — underscores the scale of the agenda the Education Ministry is currently pursuing. Iddrisu also took a moment to commend the leadership of Aburi Girls SHS, praising the school’s headmistress for her contribution to the institution’s development and the wellbeing of its students.
Taken together, the announcements represent an attempt to address education challenges at multiple levels at once: reducing stress in the examination room, filling plates in the dining hall, and building the physical spaces where learning happens. Whether these commitments translate into lasting change will depend on execution — but for students, parents, and educators watching closely, the direction of travel at least appears to be the right one.