The minister of Education, Minkailu Bah, has stated that his government would not abolish the 6-3-3-4 system of education.
He however stated that they would be making a complete assessment of the system and see the lapses and how they could be salvaged.
The minister condemned the system in the same vein, pointing out that graduates of that system could not be compared to graduates of the former General Certificate Levels.
Mr Minkailu said the graduates of the 6-3-3-4 were extremely weaker, and squarely laid the blame on Principals of schools who, he said, were responsible for the poor performance of the 6-3-3-4 graduates and falling standards of education on the whole.
He stated that Principals of schools had been accepting pupils who had not passed even a single subject at BECE into Senior Secondary Schools (SSS).
Displaying a list of failed pupils who were accepted into SSS in a school in Bombali, the minister showed that several pupils failed the BECE woefully and some had only one or two subjects but were accepted in the Senior Secondary School.
Mr Bah expressed his utter dismay over this situation which, he said, was practiced in many schools.
He promised that the ministry would continue to investigate these issues and find a solution to this malaise.
The Education minister announced that his ministry would establish 48 Technical Vocational Institutes all over the country.
He said this was to upgrade the educational system in the country as there had not been enough technical vocational institutions to absorb students, especially from BECE who would not want to proceed to SSS.
The Education minister said the vocational institutes would not be like “the gara tie dying or soap making type but a constructive, international standard with standard courses on technology and mechanics and various trades”.
This, he said, would help in the training of youths to up the educational level and make for youth employment.
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