Bawumia Takes On Persons Questioning Integrity Of WASSCE Results

The Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has questioned efforts by some Ghanaians to cast dirt at successes that accompany the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the name of politicking.

He recalled how Ghanaian students under the Free Senior High School policy have been able to gain admission into prestigious institutions abroad with their impressive results and won international competitions and yet do not seem to have earned the confidence of some Ghanaians.

“Our SHS students go from Keta SHS to Harvard University and excel. Our girls at Mamfe Senior High go for a world competition in robotics and win against teams from the USA, Germany and South Korea.

“Our boys from Prempeh College have won robotics world competitions against global competition many times. Yet when these same students excel at WASSCE some people for political reasons even question the integrity of their results!” he wrote on his Facebook wall.

Congratulating the 2023 WASSCE candidates, he queried, “Why do some always believe that it is impossible for our students or our people to be the best?” and affirmed, “It is possible! Congratulations to WASSCE students for their excellent performance in the examination.”

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) released the results of the 2023 candidates on Monday depicting a performance improvement.

Data from WAEC showed that 73.11% of candidates had between A1 and C6 in English language, 62.23% in Mathematics, 66.82% in Integrated Science and 76.67% in Social Studies.

Editorialist and teacher, Samoa Mensa after the release of the results kicked against it as the true reflection of high school education in Ghana.

“I am however saddened by the way stakeholders of education in Ghana have schemed to create a statistics that shows a picture of a seemingly improving output of senior high school education especially– with respect to students performance in WASSCE – while the true standard of senior high school education in the country is not reflective of this outcome.”

He noted that the results are being sponsored by the WASSCE malpractices financed by power brokers.

“WASSCE malpractices have heightened in the last 5 years since the introduction of the Free Senior High School Policy. Power brokers in the country including financiers of the ruling party; members of government; key stakeholders of the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education, do whatever they could, in the name of Free Senior High School Policy, to indirectly bully headmasters of Senior High Schools for these heads to ensure that their respective schools attain a certain level of output with respect to the WASSCE results.”

“And the demands and expectations required from these heads ought to be met, whether or not their candidates are deserving of those grades or not. The only way for these helpless heads to get this done is to organise teachers who have expertise in various subjects, extort monies from students, and supply answers to students in the examination hall.”