The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has announced a change in the examination date and duration for 2024 WASSCE school candidates. The changes mean SHS3 students in single-track schools are likely to spend more time in school than usual, to the disadvantage of teachers whose vacation periods would be shortened by the prolonged stay in school.
The official start date announced for WASSCE 2024 was July 1, 2024. The examination was to end on August 31, 2024. However, WAEC has alternated the date, and the WASSCE will be administered from Monday, August 5, 2024, through September 27, 2024.
While the date for the examination has changed, the GES has yet to communicate any variations in the current academic calendar for final-year students, especially those in single-track Free SHS who have been in school since November 1, 2023.
In the past, GES has been accused of poor planning, leading to frequent changes in the academic calendar each time they are released.
This time around, WAEC has made changes to the announced starting time, which gives candidates a few more days to prepare for the examination. However, this is going to affect the GES’s academic calendar for the year for all second-cycle schools.
“Every day you change the date, whatever the vacation date, for the single track students in SHS3, because you postponed their vacation date because of the registration and the earlier start of their exams.” A worried teacher commented on our publication that announced the newly revised WASSCE 2024 date.
Why did SHS3 students in single-track schools report to school on November 1, 2023, and have been in school till now? He quizzed.
From all indications, the GES planned to vacate them on the 28th of March so that they could reopen the school on April 17 because the WASSCE was supposed to start in July.
Now that WASSCE has been shifted to August 5, the Ghana Education Service will have to make some adjustments, which will compel teachers in such schools to spend more time in school.
READ: WAEC Releases New Date For 2024 WASSCE
The GES would have to do good and effective lobbying through the teacher unions to ensure the agitations from the union members are curtailed. The health of teachers will be affected just as their planned programmes for vacation dates were announced earlier through the academic calendar released by the GES.