2023 WASSCE RESULTS: REAL OR FICTION? KOFI ASARE WRITES
WASSCE RESULTS: REAL OR FICTION? KOFI ASARE WRITES
Kofi Asare discusses concerns and challenges surrounding the credibility of the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results in Ghana. He highlights the emphasis placed on basic education by university representatives during a budget meeting, attributing it to a decline in the quality of students transitioning to tertiary education.
Kofi Asare then points out discrepancies in WASSCE results, citing instances where students excel in the exam but demonstrate poor foundational skills in tertiary education.
Asare refers to previous investigations, such as Eduwatch and Corruption Watch’s undercover examination of the 2021 WASSCE, where cheating and exam fraud were uncovered.
He expresses concern about the persistence of exam-related misconduct, including collusion and supervised cheating, despite efforts to reduce question leakages. He acknowledges positive steps taken to enhance question security but emphasizes the need for stronger sanctions, particularly the outright dismissal of teachers involved in exam center fraud.
Despite the challenges and deficits discussed, Asare concludes by urging the Ghana Education Service to address these issues without overshadowing the genuine successes of the 2023 WASSCE results. He emphasizes the importance of improving the education system and calls for stricter measures to deter teachers from engaging in fraudulent activities at exam centers.
Full Write up
Weeks ago, in a meeting with the Finance Minister and Deputies to do budget influencing, when I was busy strategizing on my submission for public basic education investments, I was surprised the representatives from public universities who presented earlier spent much of their time on basic education than tertiary.
They took the wind out of my sail. Why?
The two Professors from GIMPA and UG wanted more investments in basic education because according to them, the quality of human beings being shipped to tertiary after SHS kept declining.
According to the two economics professors, deficits in foundational skills in written English especially, was a major problem for lecturers. However, all these students had passed WASSCE very very well.
Since the 2023 WASSCE results were released, I have received many messages to the effect that some students do not own their results.
One teacher is worried his student who cannot solve a linear equation question had an A in Mathematics.
In Eduwatch and Corruption Watch’s undercover WASSCE investigation of 2021, a guardian in the Bekwai area questioned why his nephew who had an aggregate of 10 wouldn’t proceed to the College of Education or university.
The boy insisted on joining the army, even after failing to make it at first instance.
The boy’s uncle doubted his grades. Later, after pushing him, he confessed that teachers wrote for them at their center. I still have the audio interview the Corruption Watch team had with the parent in Kokofu on my phone.
To date, I am aware the head teachers and teachers who supervised the cheating in those schools where we did our undercover exercise are still at post.
Schools, including private ones, are still exam centers. A Management in Living tutor at St Jerome SHS caught on video dictating answers in a big exam hall is now an Assistant Head in another school.
I also know of schools where the school heads were so firm at exam centers that the students even felt nervous; some heads wouldn’t compromise at all.
Other heads were so principled, causing communities to demonstrate against them leading to their eventual transfer for safety reasons. Eg. Baglo Ridge SHS. (I have this video too)
While very good progress has been made to reduce (if not eliminate) question leakages with the BNI now taking over questions security at printing, there are still serious issues with exam room collusion and supervised cheating, as WAEC admits in their presentation to parliament last week.
Notwithstanding, these challenges and deficits must not take the shine off the 2023 WASSCE results.
There are always many genuine ones and some bad ones.
The Ghana Education Service must strengthen its sanctions regime for teachers who participate in exam center fraud. The current sanctions regime is not a deterrent. Outright dismissal is the way to go.
We can only improve the ratios!
Source; Kofi Asare of Eduwatch
