Accra, Nov. 11, GNA – There are no assurances from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) that this year’s BECE would be leakage-free, says Mr Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch.
He explained that per historical antecedents in WAEC related examinations, he could only hope that the examining body would put its house in order to prevent the scare of what took place in this year’s 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
“…on the side of WAEC, we don’t have the assurance that there won’t be any leakages but we can only hope that WAEC put its house in order and prevent a repetition of what happened during this year’s WASSCE.”
This year’s BECE comes off Monday, November 15 and ends Friday, November 19, at 2,158 designated centres across the country. It is expected that 571, 894 candidates will sit for the papers, according to the Ghana Education Service.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the Executive Director said his outfit raised issues of systemic inefficiencies on questions, transmissions and processes within WAEC’s operational activities but those issues had not been resolved.
He said the examination body had rather spent time defending the issues instead of improving or plugging the loopholes therein. He put the problem of leakages at the heart of the printing activity–a position he espoused per the engagement he has had with personnel who print, sort out and pack the questions.
“But since WAEC is in a denial mood, we can only hope that something different will happen this BECE,” he added.
According to Mr Kofi Asare, during a meeting with Parliament where WAEC was involved, the latter admitted to some rogue elements on social media advertising BECE questions.
In our quest of detecting the veracity of activities of these rogue elements, Africa Education requested and paid for fourteen exam papers but only had eleven, indicating that there are still loopholes in the system as nothing has changed, he said.
He added that school authorities had adequately prepared the candidates per their evaluation, particularly coming from the backdrop of the pupils losing ten months of classroom activities during the Coronavirus surge.
Mr. Asare called on the candidates, guardians and parents in the catchment areas of where the tidal waves left a trail of destruction, not to be distressed about finding examination centres because GES was fully aware and would quickly make alternative arrangements.
GNA