Member of parliament for South Builsa, Dr Clement Apaak, has called out what he describes as the fraudulent comparison of GHASSCE result to that of WASSCE results by President Akufo-Addo.
According to him, Ghana left the sub-regionally organized West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 2020, in the wake of COVID-19, to organize a “local” Ghana-made WASSCE.
As such, he explained that President Akufo-Addo cannot by any means compare a locally conducted examination to that of WASSCE.
“It’s fraudulent to compare GHASSCE results to WASSCE results: Ghana Senior School Certificate Examination (GHASSCE). So, its intellectually dishonest to compare the 2022 GHASSCE results to the 2016 WASSCE results.”
President Akufo-Addo
Dr Apaak indicated that if the President wants a true comparison, “we must revert to WASSCE in 2024 so that we can compare oranges to oranges”.
President Akufo-Addo lauded the contribution of the Chartered Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) for the contribution towards the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School Policy, which commenced in September 2017.
He equally commended the SHS schools on the increasingly stellar performances of the students in the West African Senior High School (WASSCE) examinations since the introduction of the Policy.
Addressing the 61st Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), President Akufo-Addo revealed that, in the face of brute resistance, this vindication, based on results, means, “there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SHS policy and its consequential measures”.
Furthermore, President Akufo-Addo highlighted that the WASSCE results of graduates have surpassed those chalked in 2016, prior to his assumption of office.
“The 2022 WASSCE results of the third batch of the “Akufo-Addo graduates” shows 60.39% of students recording A1-C6 in English, as opposed to 51.6% in 2016; 62.45% recording A1-C6 in Integrated Science in 2022, as opposed to 48.35% in 2016, with the 2022 result being a slight regression from the 2021 pass rate of 65.70%; 61.39% recording A1-C6 in Mathematics, as compared to 33.12% in 2016; and 71.51% recording A1-C6 in Social Studies, as compared to 54.55% in 2016.”
President Akufo-Addo
Impressive results of free SHS policy in September
President Akufo-Addo noted that quality, despite the increased enrolment figures, which, now stands at some 1.4 million students, has not declined.
On the contrary, he emphasized that it has improved, and thanked members of CHASS, for the “impressive results seen in the West African Senior High School examinations, since the commencement of the Free SHS policy in September 2017”.
Furthermore, the President reminded the gathering that the 2021 batch of students, who equally obtained very commendable results, were the pioneers of the double track system, which elicited a lot of unmerited vilification and unfounded criticism on its introduction.
Additionally, he noted that the 2022 results are the “best of the last eight (8) years” and that there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SHS policy and its consequential measures.
Justifying the introduction of the Free SHS policy, President Akufo-Addo explained that, at the time he came into office in 2017, the country had the unfortunate situation, between 2013 and 2016, where, on the average, 100,000 children, every year, who passed the B.E.C.E., could not take up their places in Senior High Schools, because they could not afford the fees, even though they had the qualifications.
He indicated that this would have culminated in an “unacceptable outcome” if the situation had persisted for a decade, when, cumulatively, “one million children would have dropped out of school at the level of Junior High School”.
Moreover, he expressed that it would have been too dangerous for Ghana’s stability, as it would have been building a future of hopelessness for the youth.
“Such a situation was intolerable, and my party and I were determined to end it. That is one of the principal reasons for the introduction of the Free Senior High School policy in September 2017, eight (8) months after I had taken office.”
President Akufo-Addo
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