GES AD II Promotion common mistakes
GES AD II Promotion · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the Ghana Education Service as the body that sets the national curriculum and awards certificates, instead of attributing those functions to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) respectively.
Candidates memorise 'GES runs pre-tertiary education' and then over-extend that statement to every function in the sector, because the mandate question is usually studied as a single slogan rather than as a division of labour among the agencies under the Ministry of Education.
What to do instead
Build a one-page function map: Ministry of Education (policy, financing), GES (implementation, management of public pre-tertiary institutions, staffing, supervision), NaCCA (curriculum and assessment frameworks, textbook approval), WAEC (external examinations), GTEC (tertiary), NTC (teacher licensing), and the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (inspection). For each past question on 'who is responsible for X', locate X on that map before answering.
Confusing the GES Council with the office of the Director-General, for example stating that the Council appoints or disciplines the Director-General, or that the Director-General approves GES policy.
Governance and management are taught together, so the oversight body and the chief executive blur into one. Candidates also carry over intuition from other public boards without checking the specific GES instrument.
What to do instead
Learn the two-tier distinction explicitly: the Council is the governing/oversight body that sets direction and approves policy and plans, while the Director-General is the chief executive who implements and is the accounting officer. Note who appoints whom and who reports to whom, and practise questions phrased as 'who approves' versus 'who implements'.
Describing the regional and district directorates with the same functions, e.g. saying the district directorate 'coordinates the region' or the regional directorate 'posts teachers to individual schools'.
The two tiers use overlapping vocabulary (supervision, monitoring, coordination) and candidates revise from summaries that list functions without attaching each to a tier.
What to do instead
Create a tier table with three columns: headquarters, regional, district. Assign each function to exactly one tier: headquarters sets policy and national standards; the region coordinates, monitors, and supervises districts and handles appeals and transfers within the region; the district implements directly in schools, deploys teachers to schools, and does first-line monitoring. Test yourself by covering a column and reciting it.
Citing a circular or guideline by an approximate title or number and asserting it is currently in force, when the candidate cannot recall the exact reference or whether it has been superseded.
Circulars are numerous, frequently revised, and often learned from photocopied compilations of uncertain date; candidates guess rather than admit the reference is unknown.
What to do instead
For every circular you plan to cite, record the exact number, date, issuing office and subject in a personal register, and mark the status (current/superseded). In the exam, if you cannot state the reference precisely, describe the rule and its source generically ('a GES circular on...') rather than inventing a number. Wrong specifics lose more marks than a correct general statement.
Mixing up the Schemes of Service for the teaching grades with those for the non-teaching/administrative grades, for example applying classroom-teacher promotion criteria to an administrative officer or vice versa.
Both are 'Schemes of Service' documents with parallel structure (grades, qualifications, progression), and candidates study whichever copy they can obtain without noting which cadre it covers.
What to do instead
Tabulate each scheme separately with its cadre, grades, entry qualifications, years required at each grade and promotion route. Then write a short comparison of where they differ. Before answering a promotion-eligibility question, first identify the cadre named in the stem.
Answering promotion-eligibility questions from general seniority intuition (e.g. 'longest serving gets it') instead of applying the stated criteria of qualification, years in grade, appraisal records and availability of vacancies.
Candidates rely on workplace experience and rumour about how promotions 'really' happen, rather than the written scheme and the advertised vacancy requirements.
What to do instead
Memorise the standard criteria set: required academic/professional qualification, minimum years in the current grade, satisfactory appraisal or performance rating, and a declared vacancy. In scenario questions, list which criteria are met and which are not before choosing an answer; the correct option is the one that applies all criteria, not the one that rewards seniority alone.
Confusing flagship programmes and initiatives with each other, for example swapping the aims of the school feeding programme with those of the free compulsory basic education policy, or misattributing a girls' education or teacher-development initiative to the wrong agency.
Programmes are studied as a list of names with short slogans, so the objective of one is recalled in the context of another.
What to do instead
For each programme write four lines: full name, lead agency, target group, and the specific problem it addresses. Then write one sentence distinguishing it from the programme it is most easily confused with. Revise by matching shuffled objectives to programme names.
Treating the curriculum as a single static document, so the candidate cannot distinguish the standards-based/pre-tertiary curriculum framework from its subject curricula, and does not know which body approves textbooks and instructional materials.
The curriculum reform is often learned as a headline ('new curriculum') without the structure: framework, subject curricula, assessment standards, and approved materials list.
What to do instead
Learn the hierarchy: national framework and standards set by NaCCA, subject curricula derived from it, and an approved list of textbooks and supplementary materials that schools must select from. Practise questions that ask which document governs a situation (framework vs subject curriculum vs approved materials list) and who approves each.
Giving a single-sentence answer to a 'discuss' or 'explain' question, or writing everything known about GES structure when the question asks specifically about, say, the role of the district director in supervision.
Under time pressure candidates answer the topic rather than the instruction verb, and do not check the command word before writing.
What to do instead
Underline the command word and the limiting phrase in every question before planning. For 'discuss' or 'explain', produce a structured response: a definition or position, three to five developed points each with an example or consequence, and a brief conclusion. For a narrow question, deliberately exclude material outside the stated scope.
Reproducing policy terminology imprecisely, for example using 'free education' and 'free compulsory basic education' interchangeably, or describing 'access' when the question concerns 'equity' or 'quality'.
Policy documents use paired concepts that sound similar in everyday speech, and candidates paraphrase from memory rather than from the definitions.
What to do instead
Keep a glossary of policy terms with the official definition and one concrete example each (access, equity, quality, relevance, decentralisation, supervision vs inspection, monitoring vs evaluation). In answers, use the term exactly as defined and pair it with an example so the examiner can see the distinction is understood.