Ghana Still Writes WASSCE- Prof Opoku-Amankwa

The former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa has argued that the country continues to write West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASCCE) with its West African colleagues.

This is in reaction to a contrary statement by the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.

Per the comment of the former President, Ghana ceased writing the WASCCE in 2016, contributing to the fallen standard of Ghanaian students.

In his press statement, the former GES boss whose exit was entangled in a controversy stated that Ghana writes West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) with all member countries and has not pulled out as suggested.

According to him, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when President Akufo-Addo decided to let Ghanaian students sit the WASSCE as scheduled, he managed to convince the remaining member states to join.

The schedule followed in 2021, he said.

He furthered that the timeline for writing the WASSCE changed in 2022 and 2023 due to the effects of the pandemic which automatically reviewed the academic calendar but notes that the same standard was used to set questions for Ghanaians.

“In early 2022, after careful analysis and projections into the future of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education, Ghana proposed a transitional academic calendar for SHS for consideration and adoption by WAEC member countries. The objective was to support students to catch up with lost contact hours – almost 12 months – resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The other four member countries accepted Ghana’s transitional academic calendar in principle but indicated they had already reverted to the old school calendar – September to July – immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore would write their WASSCE during the original May/June period.

“Ghana was however permitted to operate its transitional academic calendar and subsequently wrote the WASSCE 2022 and 2023 on a different schedule, albeit of the same standard set for all WASSCE.”

He posited that it is not the first time a WASSCE-sitting member country has used a different schedule, citing Liberia and Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

Additionally, he noted the country still participates in the West African Examinations Council’s International Excellence Awards.

“In 2022, even though Ghana wrote WASSCE using a different schedule, Ghana still participated in, and won the first and second positions of the top three awards at the International Excellence Awards held in Banjul, the Gambia in March 2023. Mr. Alex Manu and Mr. Benjamin Eyram Nana Kwame Degbey both from St. James Seminary SHS respectively won the first and second positions at the International Excellence Awards for WASSCE 2022.”