The President of the Republic, Nana Akuffo-Addo has criticized the running mate of the opposition, National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama for downplaying the quality of passes achieved by the WASSCE candidates under his tenure.
The former President on his ‘building Ghana tour’ attributed the high pass rate of students who sat for the WASSCE to the poor conduct of invigilators who provided assistance to students and tolerated examination practices.
“In many places, they let the children cheat. You go to places and the teachers are conniving with the students to cheat. The effect will be seen later.”
John Dramani Mahama
He stressed that the repetition of this conduct by invigilators and students will have serious implications on the nation’s educational system in the long-term such that students with Ghanaian certificates will be unable to compete with the outside world because they cheated their way through school.
The former President’s critique followed a statement by the Ministry of Education, which highlighted a remarkable progress in WASSCE results, citing a substantial improvement from a 28.7 percent score (A1-C6) in Integrated Science in 2015 to an impressive 66.80 percent achieved by 2023 WASSCE candidates under President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The President, however, disagreed with the assessment of the former President, describing it as irresponsible and sentimental.
“It is a pity though that the sad nature of aspects of contemporary Ghanaian politics drove some otherwise allegedly responsible people including your former President and current NDC Presidential candidate, to question the integrity of the results happily without any foundation and to attribute these results to cheating.”
Nana Akufo-Addo
The President emphasized that the improvement in performance of Ghanaian students in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination can be attributed to the significant investment by his government in expanding infrastructure and promised to continue such investments as long as he is President.
He added that the quality of results by the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ is an indication of the caliber of instruction provided by the free senior high school programme, and emphasized that the quality of education has improved tremendously contrary to claims that it has deteriorated.
Ministry of Education Disregards Mahama’s Comment on WASSCE Results
Prior to the President’s reaction on Mahama’s critique of the quality of results obtained in the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has described the former President’s comments as a ‘calculated effort to downplay the strides that have been made by the ministry in improving learning outcomes in the country’.
He urged the general public to disregard the comments of the former President as they were based on no empirical data. He stressed on the strict supervision measures that were developed by the West African Examination Council and the Ghana Education Service to curb malpractices and enhance the integrity of the examinations.
“We have made monumental progress, and over the past few years, WAEC has instituted several measures to curb exam malpractices during the BECE and WASSCE test administration. The Ministry of Education wishes to assure our students, parents, guardians, and the general public that the quality of education and examinations at all levels, including the WASSCE, was not and will not be compromised.”
Yaw Osei Adutwum
The NDC’s building Ghana tour is intended to solicit ideas from the general public in developing the people’s manifesto for election 2024. Citizens in Mfantseman Constituency raised concerns about lack of textbooks since the new curriculum was introduced; inadequate infrastructure to accommodate students; and poor conditions of service.
The NDC’s presidential candidate, John Mahama, has promised to review the free SHS policy and invest in housing schemes for teachers when he is elected as President of the Republic in the 2024 general elections.
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