Students To Write WASSCE Via Internet

Plans are underway for prospective candidates for the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to write the examination via the internet.

The project will be under a new programme known as the Internet-Based Test (IBT), an online test that requires candidates to provide answers to questions on respective papers through the internet without being provided with the hard copies of examination papers.

The head of Test Administration Division at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Mr Felix Akuffo-Badoo, who disclosed this in an interview with The Ghanaian Times in Accra, on Friday said the initiative was part of efforts to upgrade the examination in the country, while checking examination malpractices.

He said the IBT had a well structured form of questions that would make it very difficult for candidates to copy from one another, hence curbing malpractices.

Mr. Akuffo-Badoo, who spoke to The Times on the sidelines of a seminar organized by WAEC in Accra, said the IBT would also curtail leakages of question papers as candidates and schools could have access to the papers only when they were seated for the paper.

According to him, the IBT examination would also be marked on the internet thereby ensuring prompt release of results.

He said the Council was considering beginning the IBT with the Information Communication Technology (ICT) paper and later rolling it out in other papers.

According to him, the IBT would enable the country to join other countries such as Nigeria, the United States and England in writing examinations via the internet.

Mr. Akuffo-Badoo was optimistic that the initiative would reduce the incidence of examination malpractices that was on the ascendency, while exposing students to the further use of ICT.

Dr. Emmanuel Kitcher, head of IT Department of the Methodist University College Ghana, in a presentation, identified the increase in student population to be a major contributing factor affecting the processes involved in the organising examinations.

He therefore, recommended strongly the use of IT-based solutions to alleviate the challenges confronting examinations in the country.

According to him, the success or failure of the examination processes partly depended on the capabilities of the staff to perform their functions efficiently but a major part depended on acquiring the necessary software applications to support the processes.

Dr. Kitcher expressed the hope that such on initiative would maintain high standards of service delivery, while benefiting the education system in the country.


Source: Ghanaian Times

Ghana Education Service Must Respond To WASSCE Anomalies Before We Destroy The Future Of The Children Of Ghana

Ghana Education Service must respond to the violent and unnecessary discipline administered during the ongoing West Africa Certificate Examination (WASSCE), demands the child rights organization Challenging Heights. Challenging Heights believes that these anomalies that prevent children from writing their WASSCE as planned can destroy the future of the children and youth in Ghana.

The ongoing WASSCE has seen several breaches in conduct, such as caning examination candidates on the basis of not paying their full school fees, even though this goes against orders issued by the acting Director-General of Ghana Education Service. Some students who were caned were made to stand outside for an hour, falling behind as their classmates continued the exam. Other students were sent home to retrieve their school fees.

In one case, a student was not allowed to use the washroom, and was then forced to defecate near the examination hall. The saddest part was that he was made to collect his own faeces, and clean the place before being allowed to enter the examination hall to continue his paper.

These situations pose roadblocks to children in Ghana and hinder them from furthering their education. This in turn is hampering Ghana’s development.

The potential of Ghana’s economic growth as a result of its investment in the education sector is undeniable. In the newly released Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) findings, we see a strong correlation between investment in education and economic growth. It predicts that if all children completed basic education to age 15 then the Gross Domestic Productivity (GDP) of Ghana would not double or triple but increase 38-fold!

It is on this basis that Challenging Heights demands a response from Ghana Education Services to prevent future breaches, and so not to waste the meager resources we have invested in our children in Senior High Schools. Challenging Heights seeks to promote children’s rights and envisions “a world where every child is in school and lives in a loving and caring family”.

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, Daily Graphic reported that three girls at St. John’s Grammar Senior High School in Accra were prevented from writing their Christian Religious Studies paper in the ongoing WASSCE, due to their bushy hair. Interestingly, the acting Director-General of GES was quoted to have said that the school should register the students in the upcoming November/December edition of the WASSCE at its own cost.

We want to know who is responsible for following up and making sure the girls are allowed to register again, and how can their situation be prevented in the future.

Sadly, we have had several cases were students were sacked for failing to pay all school fees. Though the GES issued a directive that no child should be sacked during the WASSCE on the grounds of not paying their full school fees, this continues to happen. It appears that it is a standard practice in schools that students who owed part of their school fees are canned and cautioned before being allowed to write exams, on a daily basis. In cases where students are caned and made to wait outside before they start their exam, there is no doubt that the children are not able to perform their best, considering the loss of exam time, plus psychological and emotional distress endured.

How can we, as a country, expect children to perform well on their final exams immediately after suffering physical violence or caning – or when they are denied their right to properly sit papers for no fault of their own? These children are plagued with fears, tears, anxieties and stress, which does not provide the right psychological frame to write and excel in any academic test or examination.

We are particularly concerned about what becomes of their future, destiny and the investment that their parents had made into their lives – both for the individual children and for the loss of benefit to our country’s economy.

As of now, Ghana Education Service has not openly expressed their plans to address these breaches, or to enforce the very directives issued to prevent this from happening next year and in the years beyond.


Source: David Kofi Awusi, Advocacy Manager, Challenging Heights

Final Year SHS Girl Beaten By Teachers Wife

A final year Home Economics student of Asesewa Senior High School in the Upper Manya District of the Eastern Region has been physically assaulted by the wife of a Biology tutor in the same school for allegedly dating his husband, Eugene Acheampong.

The wife of the Biology teacher,who is even a food vendor in the school attacked the female student on campus during school hours and beat the student mercilessly.

"She would have strip her naked If not for the intervention of some students on campus who went to the rescue of the victim and rushed her to the Asesewa Government Hospital," an eyewitness told Michael Akrofi.

According to Peace FM's Eastern Regional correspondent, Michael Akrofi, sources in the school say it's the teacher who is always harassing the victim on campus.

Several complaints have been made to Mr. Seth Abgesi, the Assistant Headmaster of the school and authorities about the conduct of the said teacher but nothing has been done about it.

Currently the victim is in the school taking her last paper in the ongoing WASSCE after being discharged from the Asesewa Government Hospital.

The Headmaster of Asesewa SHS, Mr. Samuel Gyebi Yeboah and his assistant Headmaster Mr.Seth Abgesi in an interview said a committee has been set up to investigate the issue which has also been reported to the Asesewa police.


Source: Michael Akrofi, Peace Fm, Eastern Regional Correspondent

WAEC Denies Leakage Of WASSCE Maths Paper

The West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) has denied leakage of its Core Mathematics paper in the ongoing 2015 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE). According to WAEC, since they have not received any report from their officials at the various schools; no investigation can be carried out into the said allegations. There have been media reports of a syndicate leaking examination papers to individuals and schools at a fee. The syndicate is said to be made up of some teachers and a WAEC official. Social media has been buzzing with the news that the core mathematics papers which was written few days ago were among the leaked papers. This has raised concerns among some students and parents who fear WAEC will cancel the paper. But speaking to Citi News, the Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe dismissed the reports and insisted, “the paper did not leak before it was written.” She assured the general public that there will be no cancellation of the core mathematics paper and neither will students have to retake that exam. “They should be rest assured that the paper is not going to be cancelled because we have not received any reports of leakages from our officers on the field so the examination is going to continue as scheduled and the Maths paper is not going to be cancelled,” she stressed. According to her, “if there were any reports like that, I am sure we would have received them by now so we are not even going to think about that.” There have consistently been reports of leakage of examination questions which has raised questions over the credibility of the WASSCE. Agnes Teye-Cudjoe however said mechanisms have been put in place to check such practices and offenders will be prosecuted and punished accordingly.

Source: Daily Graphic

Kumbungu SHS students demonstrate against headmaster

Students of Kumbungu Senior High School (SHS) Monday morning staged a demonstration against the school’s headmaster Francis Tia Dokurugu accusing him of failing to supervise teachers resulting in students’ poor performance.

Joy News’ Northern regional correspondent, Martina Bugri reports that first and second-year students of the school started the protest in the Monday morning at about 8am.

The students say teachers often turn up late for work, routinely missing their first lessons and leaving before the last lessons in order to catch the afternoon bus to Tamale where many of them reside.

Tamale is 22kilimeters from the school and is a one hour journey by motorbike.

According to the students, for the past two years, students of the school who sat the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) performed poorly.

The school was ranked 483 out of over 700 schools who participated in the 2013 SHS league table of academic performance.

Only 19.2% of the 368 students passed in six to eight subjects during the 2013 WASSCE.

Martina Bugri reports that there is little semblance of ongoing academic work although final-year students are preparing for exams later in the week.

Final-year students did not take part in the demonstrations.

The students have also accused the headmaster of converting bungalows meant for teachers into hostels for female students.

Kumbungu SHS is struggling with serious infrastructure problems for its 1,200 students.

There is an unusual practice where a majority of the students live on rented apartments outside campus because of a lack of boarding facilities.

The headmaster was not available for comment.

Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com

3 more teachers arrested in Adjena Secondary Technical School exam fraud

Three more teachers at the Adjena Secondary Technical School in the Eastern Region have been arrested for allegedly helping students cheat in the ongoing West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

This brings to six the number of people arrested in connection with the exam malpractice.

The arrests follow Joy News’ investigation which revealed how a syndicate is leaking examination papers and compromising the entire 2015 West Africa exams.

Public Relations Officer at the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service, Joseph Benefo Darkwa, says the suspects will be sent to court before Wednesday.

"We have in addition to the trio who were arrested, intelligence have led to the arrest of another three people," he told Joy FM.

"We are still investigating. After investigations, we will be able to tell which people are culpable.

"If we finish with our investigations, then they will be put before court today but if we are not through with our investigations then we will send them to court tomorrow.

"But we are hoping that we complete our investigations today," he assured.

Source: Ghana|Myjoyonline.com

WAEC's anti-cheating software to detect examination leakages

As bad as the leakage of exam papers are, WAEC cheating detection software will ensure that the practice will not go undetected or unpunished, head of the Ghana office has noted.

The Very Reverend Sam Nii Nmai Ollenu says “we have a software now which will also scan responses of candidates and if there is cheating the software will detect [it]”.

He made no bones about the repercussions of the malpractice in the ongoing Senior High School final examination.

“They will have their subject results cancelled”, he said.

Joy News investigations have uncovered a syndicate leaking examination papers to students willing to pay hard cash for an easy pass.

A leaked paper is estimated at a cost of 1,500cedis, revealed Joy News’ Kwetey  Nartey who helped bust the syndicate.

But WAEC official Felix Akufo-Addo who has seen some of the leaked papers says the papers are "fake". He has also warned students to be wary of persons who claim to have authentic examination papers for sale.

Nonetheless the investigation has led to the arrest of three teachers of Adjena Secondary Technical School in the Eastern region.

The teachers allegedly solve the questions and then supply the candidates with the duplicates of the questions as well as the answers.

Police CID Joseph Obenefo Darkwa confirmed the arrest.

The 2015 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) began in March and is expected to be completed within a month.

In all, 268,771 candidates from 868 public and private Senior High Schools (SHS), are participating in the examination at 866 centres.

Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com

Joy News Investigation: 3 Adjena Secondary Technical School teachers arrested over WASSCE fraud

Joy News investigation has led to the arrest of three teachers of the Adjena Secondary Technical School for allegedly helping students to cheat in the ongoing West Africa Secondary School Examinations, WASSCE.

The teachers allegedly solve the questions and then supply the candidates with the duplicates of the questions as well as the answers.

Joy News provided the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service the information leading to the arrest of the three teachers of the school.

Police CID Joseph Obenefo Darkwa who confirmed the arrest said they are treating the arrested teachers as suspects.

He would not name the suspects, at least for now. A canon camera, as well as a laptop were retrieved from the teachers.

According to Joy News' investigative journalist, Kwetey Nartey the suspects were arrested while busy solving a mathematics question which they were going to pass on to the students.

Two of the suspects are Mathematics teachers whilst the third is an animal husbandry tutor.

Meanwhile, the West Africa Examination Council has cautioned students to be wary of fraudsters who claim to be having credible examination questions.

Felix Akufo-Addo who is with the WAEC says they have received multiple reports of leaked examination papers and even sighted some but can say on authority that all those leaked papers are fake.

"All the questions are fake," he stated, adding "a number of fraudsters are going round schools and taking money from unsuspecting students."

Source: Ghana|Myjoyonline.com