Some 14 students were dismissed on the grounds of various acts of misconduct during the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) which commenced on August 3, 2020.
The students from Tweneboa Kodua SHS, Kade SHTS, Sekondi College, Battor SHS, and Juaben SHS destroyed school furniture, overturned tables with bowls containing evening meals in the dining hall, attacked invigilators, journalists, demonstrated and issued threats to school authorities for being firm during the invigilation of the exams.
A section of the public also believes the students engaged in these violent acts because the government failed to examine them on past questions distributed freely to these students.
Debunking these rumours, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry for Education, Kwesi Obeng Fosu stated that the past questions were provided to the students to prepare them for their exit exam and were not ‘apor’.
In an interview on Happy 98.9 FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, the PRO for the Ministry said, “The gov’t has no mandate to pass students writing their WASSCE. Distribution of past questions to the students was to guide them in the preparation for the exit examination.”
He indicated that the past questions have the examiners remark which is an important aspect in the preparation phase of any exam.
Kwesi Fosu stated that the acts of violence committed by the students were not based on frustrations from the supposed ‘apor’ the government provided as past questions which never appeared in their exam.
“The kids clearly stated that they acted violently because of the strict invigilation. And some also disclosed that they bought some ‘apor’ which failed them.”
He questioned the critics of the government, “How can the gov’t which supposedly supplies answers to students tighten invigilation? We are not cutting corners as a government.”
By: Joel Sanco
