Two MPs file a private member’s motion for an investigation into 10 years of examination malpractice in WAEC administered exams. If parliament approves the motion after the debate, the will be a bi-partisan committee to probe 2011 to 2021 WASSCE School leakages.
The MPs have argued on CITI EYE WITNESS NEWS that WAEC, other examination stakeholders cannot deal with the annual examination leakages, and with the lack of commitment from political actors in power to help deal with the canker which has become a business for some persons, there was the need for the two MPs from the minority side of parliament to file a private member’s motion for an investigation into the last 10 years of examination malpractice in WAEC administered exams in Ghana for WASSCE organized for school candidates.
MPs leading the crusade are Dr. Clement Apaak and Peter Nortsu-Kotoe. In an interview with Citi FM on Eye Witness News monitored by Ghanaeducation.org, Dr. Clement Apaak, representing the Builsa South Constituency in the Upper East Region in Parliament indicated that they have been alarmed by the rate at which examination malpractices are becoming a common part of BECE and WASSCE Examination in Ghana.
He applauded Africa Education Watch for its research and report on the 2020 WASSCE and said the revelations were damming. He added that it has become necessary that a parliamentary subcommittee is instituted to investigate and bring to the fore the issues that are making this practice become part of the annual examination while identifying stakeholders who are failing to perform their task in the conduct of such examination.
The MPs who filed the private member’s motions have argued that there seems to be no political will to push the agenda that will help safeguard the sanctity of the international and national examinations administered by WAEC. They have therefore called for an investigation into a decade of examination of the current situation where leakages have become part and parcel of the two main pre-tertiary examinations with the Africa Education Watch championing efforts to ensure the credibility of examinations organized by WAEC.
Hon. Vincent Ekow Assafuah of the NPP while responding on Citi news, indicated he was disappointed in the NDC MPs who filed the motion. He argued that those who filed the motion were members of the parliamentary education committee. He added that the education committee of parliament aimed at unraveling the devil in the details as far as the examination challenges and WAEC was concerned and that Parliament’s Education Committee was expected to present its report on the issue.
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Dr. Clement Apaak posited during the interview on the Eye Witness News said it seemed the Ghana Education Service did not have interest in the issues. Speaking on the monopoly of WAEC to organize examinations, he suggested the need to engage stakeholders, and safeguard the integrity of the Certificates issued by WAEC.
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Africa Education Watch has already called for the WAEC monopoly to be broken to create some level of competition. He added that, Ghana must take steps to guard the integrity of examinations and that the systems put in place to deal with examination leakages have not helped enough.