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Former Rector of GIMPA, Professor Stephen Adei has been one figure in the country who’s called severally for final year students in respective levels of education in the country to be allowed to complete their study programmes. The Former Rector has shown great concern to the educational welfare of final year students in the country. The 10th address of the President of Ghana, Nana Akuffo Addo paid a listening ear to the calls of the Former Rector.
Amid the Covid-19, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had announced its suspension of upcoming examinations including the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) until further notice. Following the directions of the President, Nana Akuffo Addo, for final year students to resume schooling activities, The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has extended its readiness to support the government’s call.
In the wake of this, WAEC has extended its willingness and availability to organize an independent West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for final year students in various Senior High Schools across the country. Thus, the examination which is standardized and written at the same time across West Africa will not pursue the yearly routine amid closures of schools across West African states. Other West African Countries that subscribe to the WASSCE include Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The decision will also mean the standardized exams will go beyond the norm, and Ghanaian candidates will take different exam questions from what other West African students will write. Mr Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, gave an update on this possibility when he spoke on CitiFM’s morning show on Monday morning, the 01st of June, 2020. As part of the efforts to curb down the spread of the Covid-19, the government suspended schooling activities across the country.
The directions of the President also meant final year students in the country would have their upcoming examination schedules postponed until further notice from the government. In the wake of this, educational institutions in the country have adopted various innovative means of reaching out to their students with continuous teaching materials including the use of live video tools, WhatsApp messaging, television channels, etc. Following the 10th address of the President, he has directed final year students to return to their various academic institutions to prepare themselves for their examinations, starting from the Junior High School students.
Commenting on the issue of resumption of educational activities for final year students, the Minister of Information acknowledged that communication has gone on between the government and the examination body. Even though WAEC has suspended upcoming examinations, the examination body has made it known that it is ready to support all countries that would call for an independent examination.
Meaning, there isn’t going to be any form of hesitation from the examination body to organize an independent exam for final year Ghanaian students in both the Junior and Senior High Schools. The Minister explained that Ghana’s fight against the global pandemic has been incredible, and the country has done exceptionally well to bring the disease under control. For this reason, WAEC is ready to help the country to organize an independent exam for Ghanaian final year students in the country.
The Information Minister, however, said Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (the Minister of Education) would provide further information on the issue shortly.
