Member of Parliament (MP) for Buem Constituency, Kofi Adams, has commended some 51 prison inmates writing this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) nationwide.
“Prison, even though people go in there as punishment, is also intended to reform you. It’s become a challenge because of the lack of space in our case, and prisons have become breeding sites for even more criminal activities.
“It is touching but not surprising that some would have the discipline to go through the process of studying and writing exams. I am happy for these 51 that their education was not curtailed by the fact that they have been in a restricted area,” he said on Accra-based Metro TV.
He also lauded the University of Cape Coast (UCC) initiative to run degree programmes for inmates.
Mr Adams called for financial support and the provision of human resources for the project from government, non-governmental Organisations and benevolent individuals
Indeed, UCC is actually running degree programmes for prison inmates I think some have even graduated. They run special programmes so there is an opportunity for them to go through all levels. So it’s a good thing.
“If we cannot build permanent school blocks because we do not have enough resources, we can provide human resources,” he suggested.
About 21 convicts sat for BECE in 2009 which has since recorded a 100 percent increase.
The prisoners, who are juvenile offenders aged between 13-18 and 18-21 are escorted by officers to the examination centres and back to prison.
Officer-in-Charge of the Senior Correctional Center, Deputy Director of Prisons, Millicent Owusu indicated that the prisoners are taken through intensive training by professionally trained teachers of the Ghana Prisons Service and some teachers from the Ghana Education Service.
According to her, they discuss past questions to keep abreast with current affairs to enable them to write the exams just as any candidate would.
However, she stated that their major challenge has to do with inadequate teaching and learning materials for inmates to upgrade themselves and seek help from benevolent individuals.
Upon passing, the inmates are enrolled in secondary high school programmes run by the Ghana Prisons Service.
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