Senior Programme Officer of Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) Divine Kpe has recommended that the Ghana Education Service (GES) should stop providing external supervisors for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Mr. Divine was speaking this morning on Campus Exclusive. He said until GES halts appointment of supervisors for WASSCE, malpractices in the examination will not end.
He advised that the West African Education Council (WAEC) appoints their own supervisors for the exams.
“At EduWatch, we believe that until WAEC gets to appoint all the external supervisors, we will not see an improvement in the irregularities we see at the [WASSCE] examination centres.”
He further explained that GES appointing 80% of the external supervisors for the WASSCE leads to a conflict of interest in the education service, hence reducing integrity in the supervision of the exams.
“Currently, 80% of the external supervisors are appointed by GES and 20% appointed by WAEC. We know GES has an interest, hence appointing GES staff to supervise the entire process. When students pass, it benefits the teachers, so we see a conflict of interest to the extent that supervisors will connive with the students to help them pass their exams.” he added.
On Friday, September 8, 2023, the examination council announced a widespread of examination irregularities in this year’s conduction of WASSCE.
Hundreds of students have been caught with foreign materials including mobile phones, textbooks, and prepared notes torn from their textbooks in the examination halls.
According to WAEC, the council’s security network tracked some of these snapshots to their sources, which included teachers.
Social Studies Paper 1 was traced to Lawrence SHS in Sunyani where the teacher who circulated the post has been arrested. Biology Paper 2 was also tracked to Mountain High SHS, and Elective Mathematics was tracked to Adu Gyamfi SHS in the Ashanti region.
–
Story by : Frimpong Collins | universnews.ug.edu.gh
