Accra: Africa Education Watch, a policy research organisation, has called for a new framework to hold school heads accountable for examination malpractice. The organisation proposed sanctions, including the removal of heads of schools where malpractice exceeds 50 per cent in any subject.
According to Ghana News Agency, Mr Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, addressed this issue at a press briefing in Accra during its 2026 first quarter education policy monitoring activity. He emphasized that without accountability from school leadership, examination room collusion will continue to rise, thereby threatening the integrity of assessments.
Mr Asare highlighted that prior to the 2025 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Ghana Education Service dismissed staff found culpable of aiding examination malpractice. He noted that the final malpractice data from the 2025 WASSCE indicated an increase from 10 per cent in 2024 to 14.8 per cent in 2025. He pointed out that 99.7 per cent of these cases resulted from examination room collusion, which often led to similar or identical scripts being detected during the marking process. Consequently, nearly 15 per cent of candidates had their subject results canceled.
Despite preparations underway for the 2026 WASSCE in June, Mr Asare expressed concern that no school head or invigilator had been sanctioned. He warned that failure to demand accountability from school leadership could lead Ghana towards a 20 per cent malpractice rate in 2026.
In September 2025, an undercover documentary by GH Probe titled 'The Dark World of BECE' exposed instances of Ghana Education Service staff engaging in malpractice for cash in schools within the Accra Metropolis. On September 10, 2025, Eduwatch called for investigations into the documentary and sanctions for those found culpable. Despite several advocacies for expedited disciplinary processes, Mr Asare noted that the outcome of these investigations has not been made public, with all staff seen in the video still at their posts and preparing for another Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) next month. He concluded that this lack of accountability cannot deter the culture of exam malpractice; rather, it incentivizes it.