‘One Man,’ a trader at the Dome Market in the Greater Accra Region, has shared a heartbreaking story of how poverty forced him to become a cobbler to pay for his Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) registration fee.
In an interview on GhanaWeb TV’s Everyday People, One Man recounted the numerous challenges he faced growing up, including his inability to attend Senior High School (SHS) after completing Junior High School (JHS).
One Man, as he preferred to be known, explained that while he was in school, his father fell ill for a very long time, which caused his education to come to a halt.
He said his father remained sick from the time he was in JHS 2 until he reached JHS 3.
Despite his family’s efforts, he said they were unable to save his father’s life.
“I completed JHS in 1990; we were the last batch to do so. After finishing, I needed someone to support me through senior high school, but I had no one. It wasn’t that my father refused to help—he was an agric officer—but you know how family matters can be.
“My father fell ill when I was in JHS 2 and remained sick until I reached JHS 3. My family did everything they could to save him, but unfortunately, he passed away. This happened during my final year, just as I was preparing for exams and looking forward to senior high school. My family kept promising to support my education, but after my father’s burial that same year, the family became separated,” he said.
Not knowing who to turn to for help, he said he decided to leave town to seek a job for himself.
He said life became so tough while he was in school that he couldn’t afford to pay his registration fees.
What makes his story even more sad was the fact that the amount he needed was just a small sum, which he can easily afford now.
One Man also said that after completing JHS, he couldn’t collect his certificate because there was no one to guide him through the process.
He said “Who could I turn to for help? The person who took over my father’s role or my mother, who was also not financially stable? I had to decide for myself, and that’s when I decided to travel.
“I never received the certificate I was supposed to get after my exams. There was no one to guide me to collect it, to see if I had passed or failed. Even finding money for my registration was a struggle. It got so tough that I had to become a cobbler to afford the registration fee, which was GH¢28.00 at the time. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t afford it until I took up the cobbler job.”
Watch One Man’s full interview on GhanaWeb TV below:
VKB/AE
