The Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has questioned the West African Examination Council (WAEC) figures put out as the number of subject results, withheld and cancelled as a result of examination malpractices during the 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The think tank says the real number of students involved in examination malpractices outweighs what WAEC put out.
This, they said, smacks of dishonesty so WEAC has not been truthful in their figures.
WAEC on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, in a statement said “a total of 1,339 subject results and 174 entire results of some students who sat for the 2021 WASSCE for School Candidates in Ghana have been cancelled.”
It added that “the entire results of 3,667 candidates have also been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into various cases of examination malpractices detected during and after the conduct of the examination.”
Additionally, the scripts of candidates from 194 schools in certain subjects have been withheld and are being scrutinised.
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Reacting to the issue on 3FM on Thursday, the Executive Director for Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, said “given the nature of malpractices that went on during the examination, I am surprised that only or less than 200 papers have been cancelled.
“What we witnessed on the ground, it should have been more. The magnitude of what we saw does not reflect the cancellation of the figure from WAEC because in some schools, that number is less. I am being honest with you.”
Mr Asare added “the result being investigated is insignificant because it represents just 20% of the total number.
“We must ask ourselves that if they withheld such results, what should that tell you? What should that tell you about the quality of education and the examination?”
The Director noted that “one should not wish that the result be cancelled but what we observed on the ground, what WAEC put out is insignificant.
“Even one school could have gotten more than the number but this is just the provisional results and it’s being investigated so let us all wait and see the final results because it is not enough in even one of the schools that we monitored.”
He recounted an incident in an examination center in which all the monitoring officials were compromised to enable the students to engage in examination malpractices.
“At a centre, the teachers were compromised, the security was compromised, invigilators were compromised, WAEC officials were also compromised, and teachers had been compromised so this is a non-starter for just one school,” he said.
He explained that “the questions were written on the blackboard for the students to write.”
“We met with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, they [WAEC] provided the papers as evidence on the issue to Parliament, and we told them we actually have videos.”
He said, “if we have one school with over 500 students indulging in examination malpractice and the WAEC has put out 174, then it’s a non-starter and WAEC has that record.”