The African Education Watch has insist that calls for the cancellation of leaked papers in the ongoing West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) is not fair to students taking part in the exam.
According to the Executive Director, Kofi Asare, the examination body, West African Examination Council (WAEC) should bear the consequences of the leaked examination questions and not the students.
“The kids are more at the receiving end when examinations are cancelled. A student who did not even receive any of the leaked will also suffer. What wrong have those kids done to suffer the cancellation of their examination? For the incompetence of WAEC you want to cancel the exam of the students?” he asked.
Furthering his stance in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun, host of the Happy Morning Show, he indicated that it will not be best to cancel the examinations of the students especially as they (students) are sitting for the exam in a period where the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With this pandemic situation, cancelling their papers is not the best. It is a delicate issue and that is why we are speaking to parliament. If you’re not careful, the measure you take will not punish WAEC but punish the kids and that will be unfortunate,” he declared.
On his account, examination leaks have been something frequent and believes it is time WAEC is held accountable. “WAEC has never done a good job. We would not be having this conversation if they (WAEC) did their job right. In 2015, they had the biggest leak and nothing happened.
They (WAEC) set up a committee to investigate the leak but did you see or hear the report from the committee? They set the committee to absorb themselves and nothing happened. We have a long history of WAEC investigating itself and no one hearing about its findings.”
The advocate who believes that the WAEC is the primary source of the examination leaks motioned that, “it is WAEC’s duty to maintain the safety of the papers from the printers to the students. They want to abdicate responsibility but we will hold them responsible. You admit the leaks but you say you’re not the source, how? We will not accept that, you’re responsible.”
The Minority in Ghana’s Parliament in a press release has called on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), to act swiftly in canceling leaked WASSCE papers.
Portions of the release signed by Dr. Clement Apaak, M.P. for Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member, Committee on Education read, “The Minority in Ghana’s Parliament call on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), to act swiftly in canceling leaked West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) papers.
As a key function, WAEC is expected to ensure fairness in, and integrity of, the examinations it conducts. This does not appear to be the case in the ongoing WASSCE examinations.”
On Friday 7th August 2020, the Integrated Science Paper scheduled for Monday 10th August 2020 was leaked and was circulated widely on social media but the questions were later changed.
On the evening of Sunday 16th August, the Core Mathematics paper scheduled for Monday 17th August was seen circulating on social media with worked out answers. Some thought they were fake but were later proven to be true as the questions circulated were contained in the very paper written on Monday.
As though the leakage of the core Mathematics paper was not worrisome enough, evidence exists pointing to leaked Chemistry and Economics papers along similar lines.
