Accra, Nov. 5, GNA – The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has raised concerns over Eduwatch 2021 WASSCE Ghana Monitoring Report, saying the report contained some inaccuracies.
The council noted that three out of 50 schools that Eduwatch mentioned as being monitored, did not even exist.
“It must be pointed out that Insaniya SHS, one of the schools that were reported to have been monitored by Eduwatch does not currently exist.
The school was closed down in January 2021. No candidate was registered by Insaniya SHS for WASSCE 2021, neither was the school used as examination centre.
Speaking at a Press conference in Accra in response to Eduwatch’s report, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Head of Public Affairs, WAEC National Office said Beposoman Muslim SHS was not on the council’s list of participating schools for WASSCE.
“Rather, the list of schools for examination includes Ghana Muslim Mission SHS, Beposo.
Yet still, the council does not have any record of Kikam SHTS on the list of schools for WASSCE.
African Education Watch (Eduwatch) on Thursday launched its 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) Ghana Monitoring Report.
The education think tank, noted that out 20 papers Monitored, 11 (55 percent) leaked while 45 percent were recorded as fake.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said the Council had taken note of the allegations made in the report of malpractices in certain schools and would probe further to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the claims made.
She said the Food and Nutrition Paper 3 which Eduwatch claimed were leaked were all fake.
“One wonders why Mr Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Eduwatch, would send false information when he had the actual fact.”
On English language 2 and Mathematics (Elective) 2, which were found to be on social media platforms and Telegram channels, one Godfred Darko aka Jerusalem, the source of handwritten questions for Mathematics Elective 2, was arrested and handed over to the Police.
On Physics 2 and 1, the Head of Public Affairs, WAEC National Office, said underground intelligence picked up signaled that the paper was ‘compromised’.
She said reports on Mathematics (Core) 2 and 1, Economics 2 and Integrated Science 2 indicated questions were fake.
“Marking of scripts is however ongoing and any irregularities detected will be investigated and scripts scrutinized”
On Chemistry 1, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said the time given was scheduled for 1:00pm and that the time given implied that candidates had already been admitted to the examination hall and they had in possession the question paper.
“Any snapshot and circulation of the objective section (Chemistry 1) would have taken place at the centre and thus constituted an inside-examination hall malpractice and not a leakage.”
She said on the issue of external supervisors, Eduwatch was not clear on reference made in respect of external supervisors as most of them were not staff of WAEC.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said it was also inaccurate for Eduwatch to state that “WAEC as an international organization, lacks accountable framework governance, operate in a virtual Monopoly in public assessment space which has no regulation or effective accountability to citizens.”
She said the WAEC had considered the implementation of various intervention aimed at reducing human involvement in the question paper production value chain.
“This would include retooling the council, serialization, use of parallel tests and making use of variable data printing among others.”
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said WAEC was committed to the conduct of credible examinations in the public interest despite the numerous challenges that the council was confronted with in the conduct of examinations.
She said the council’s doors were open and “we welcome suggestions aimed at enabling us attain our vision, to be a world class examining body.
She said Eduwatch’s Report which spoke about delayed commencement of some papers would be given the needed attention by the Council.
“We wish to assure all our public that we will continue to adopt innovative measures to improve our processes especially in the fight against examination malpractices, including examination leakage.”
She commended all stakeholders, including the Police, Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, National Security for the support given the council.
The 2021 WASSCE was conducted from August 16 to October 8, this year.
Sixty subjects were made available to 446, 321 candidates who registered from 765 schools.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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