The opposition National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr Clement Abas Apaak has accused the New Patriotic Party administration of deliberately making the general public and well-meaning Ghanaians believe that the current West African Secondary School Certificate Examination is the same as those written pre-COVID-19.

The Deputy Ranking Member of the Education Committee of Parliament in a statement on Wednesday, December 20 2023 argued that students in Ghana since COVID-19 have been writing examinations different from their counterparts in the West Africa subregion.

He explained that while other member nations of the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) postponed their 2020 examinations to 2021 due to the unanticipated emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Patriotic Party administration however, ‘hurriedly’ made arrangements with the West African Examination Council to enable Ghanaian students to write their examination in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic.

“The purpose of this article is to share the bare truth based on records, with the Ghanaian public, key stakeholders of our democracy. In the wake of WAEC’s publication of the 2023 WASSCE results, apologists of the failed Akufo-Addo/Bawumia NPP government have been busy pushing a rather fraudulent narrative. What many may not know is that, since 2020, students in Ghana have written a customised, Ghana-specific WASSCE. Or, if you like, GHASSCE.
“The Daily Graphic online, 18th December 2023, succinctly captures this truth in its opening paragraph on the subject matter, as follows: ‘Provisional results of candidates who sat for the 2023 Ghana Only Version of WASSCE for school candidates have been released by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC)’”.
Dr Clement Abas Apaak

Dr Clement Apaak further noted that President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party administration at the time ignored the dangers COVID-19 posed to various students coupled with the ‘credibility’ of the government as the ‘sovereign’ and ‘protector’ of citizens in taking such a decision.

Apaak Accuses Government Of Dishonesty

Consequently, Dr Clement Apaak accused the New Patriotic Party administration of dishonesty for deliberately comparing the results of Ghanaian students who wrote the regional-level WASSCE before 2020, to those who wrote the ‘customised Ghana WASSCE or GHASSCE’, from 2020 to the present.

According to him, at best, the comparison can only be done among the results of students who wrote Ghana’s version of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination beginning in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively as the West Africa Examination Council did in its press release announcing the 2023 results.

Moreover, the Builsa South Member of Parliament asserted that it would be inappropriate for anyone to equally compare the performance of Ghanaian students who sat for the examination from 2020 to the present to their peers in the other West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) member nations who still write the ‘traditional regional level examination’.

According to him, the situation explains why, unlike the period before 2020, no Ghanaian student has won the prestigious West African Examination Council ‘International Excellence Award’.

“In 2014, three Ghanaian students who participated in the award competition with other students from other WAEC member nations swept all three top awards. According to a GNA report dated March 12, 2015, the overall top candidate, Hasan Mickail, a former student of Ghana Secondary Technical School [GSTS] in the Western Region, who was the best candidate in the General Science Programme, both at the national and international level, also won the Bandele Award in the whole of West Africa”.
Dr Clement Abas Apaak

Dr Clement Apaak further questioned why Ghana had not abandoned the ‘Ghana-specific West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination to rejoin the regional-level examination long after COVID-19.

He stressed that until Ghanaian students write the same examinations as their counterparts do at the regional level, their performance cannot be compared to their pre-COVID-19 results or their other West African peers.