Former Education Minister and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has called for reforms to Ghana’s education system to allow students who fail individual subjects to resit them or, where necessary, repeat a class. Speaking on The Pulse on JoyNews on Wednesday, September 9, Dr Adutwum believes such measures could help address the large number of students who struggle to meet the requirements for progression to tertiary education because of poor grades in key subjects.Under the system, students’ academic performance would be recorded throughout their time in school rather than relying mainly on their final examination results.“What it means is that every semester when students take their final exams, it’s reported to a portal maintained by WAEC,” he explained.He said the system would give the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) access to students’ academic records and provide a clearer picture of their performance over time.Dr Adutwum said a properly implemented transcript system should also be linked to opportunities for students to resit subjects they fail, similar to the system used at university level.“At the university, if you fail a class, what happens to you? You do a resit,” he said.He questioned why a similar opportunity should not be available to secondary school students who fail individual subjects.“So if you are doing Form One English and you have an F in your own assessment by your own teacher, why do you move to second semester and get another F? Nothing is said to you, nobody asks you for a resit, then you go to Form Two, you have F9 first semester, no need for resit,” he said.He said that students could otherwise continue accumulating poor grades in a particular subject until they reach their final year without receiving adequate intervention.“There should be an opportunity for the student to be helped to resit those courses,” Dr Adutwum said.He believes the transcript system would make such interventions easier by identifying students who are struggling early enough.“Because all the students who got a D7 to F9, we should have known that they were going to get it,” he said.When asked whether students who fail should be allowed to repeat a class, Dr Adutwum said that should be an option where a student has failed a significant number of subjects.“If you fail a certain number of courses,” he said.He explained that schools already have the authority to repeat students where it is considered necessary, although the process should involve parents or guardians.He said parents should not be surprised by a decision that their child is being made to repeat a class.“There is also a requirement that the parents should be informed; they should be in the loop,” he said.According to Dr Adutwum, schools should first engage parents and discuss the student’s academic difficulties before deciding on repetition.He proposed a process where the school meets the parents, identifies the student’s weaknesses and puts interventions in place.“Come, let’s discuss this, call a parent conference, where you sit down and say your child Kojo Mensah is not doing well. We are going to prescribe some intervention for him; we are going to give him extra work to do to make up this grade,” he said.If those interventions fail, he said, repeating the class should remain an option.“If it doesn’t work out, Kojo Mensah will be repeated,” he said.Dr Adutwum maintained that there is nothing preventing schools from repeating students where necessary, provided the decision is taken in the best interest of the child.“And the school has the right to repeat. There’s nothing that says a school cannot repeat a child,” he said.“Because it’s in the interest of the child when, for one reason or the other, they are not doing well,” he added.Dr Adutwum said a more comprehensive transcript and resit system could also help prevent situations where students are blocked from progressing to university because of a single poor grade.Read also: WASSCE 2026: English Language performance falls to 62.4% – WAEC