Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST) IFEST, Peter Anti, has disclosed that a year is inadequate to make any policy decision on the impact of the Free Senior High School on the performance of students in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE.
Per the results of the examination conducted, there were some improvements in subjects such as English Language and Mathematics as compared to 2019, whereas Integrated Science and Social Studies saw a decline in the performance of candidates.
Peter Anti, however maintains that, the consequence of the Free SHS policy must be observed for a number of years before concluding on the quality of education under the policy and the performance of WASSCE candidates.
“One year is woefully inadequate to make any policy decision or judgment. Those who want to make political capital out of it can do that, but professionally, it is not right to make a policy judgment on a big policy like the free SHS within a year.
“Whatever results we had this year can be attributed to so many factors. How then do you know what exactly to attribute it to? Look out for the next two to three years, then you can do a longitudinal analysis of the results of students that were solely admitted unto the free SHS stream”.
According to him, until the policy is studied for some time, judgments on its impact on student performance will be inaccurate.
“Analyzing last year and this year’s results, it will be realized that last year’s came in with an average minimum aggregate of 38, whereas this year’s came in with a minimum of 54. You cannot even compare the two. We need to professionally take our time and follow the policy for a little more time to be able to make a very robust, conclusive judgment on it”.
The results, which were released on Friday, November 13, 2020, by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) revealed that, the subject results of some 2,383 candidates who sat for this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) have been cancelled.
The released provisional results of candidates who sat for the examination, among other things, were accused of engaging in collusion and bringing foreign materials to the examination hall and tearing part of their question papers to solicit assistance.
According to the examination body, “this follows the completion of all post-examination processes.”
“The entire results of 480 candidates have been cancelled for bringing mobile phones to the examination hall.
“The entire results of 384 candidates have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigation into various cases of examination malpractices detected during and after the conduct of the examination”.
The examination body further stated that, withheld results may be cancelled or released based on the outcome of the investigations.
They further advised candidates to be wary of fake results websites and the activities of fraudsters who promise to upgrade results for a fee.
“Candidates are to note that all WAEC results are secured and can be authenticated. Institutions are therefore urged to always verify results presented to them to expose incidents of forgery,” the Council added.
