He said over ninety-seven percent of the five thousand students who wrote the exams failed to obtain a pass mark.
Mr. Yidana revealed this at a handing-over ceremony of a 12-unit classroom block and a 400- bed capacity girl’s dormitory for the Walewale Vocational and Technical Institute to reduce overcrowding in the school.
“We had about 5000 students and when the results came, only 117 students passed the WASSCCE exams, that represents 3% out of 5000 students. You ask yourself, what happened to the over 4,800 students. 97% failed. We cannot do that in this region and think that we have a future”, he said.
“I’m challenging you, you’re more than intelligent and your teachers are more than capable of making you succeed but much of it depends on you the students”, he said.
According to the North East Regional Education Directorate, the abysmal performance in last year’s WASSCE is a result of challenges confronting the education sector in the region. Some of the challenges the directorate mentioned included lack of infrastructure, lack of teaching and learning materials, lack of teachers accommodation, lack of furniture and other challenges.
The North East Region has 11 Senior High, Vocational and Technical Schools in the Six Municipalities and Districts of the region.
The Minister said the students need to up their game to make the most out of the opportunity they have. He charged them to do their best.