Former President John Dramani Mahama has lately been under fire for statements concerning the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE)’s credibility.
The 2024 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) expressed reservations regarding the veracity of the 2023 WASSCE results, presumably owing to the large number of passes reported.
Mahama claimed instances of sloppy invigilation and instructor complicity in student cheating, threatening the country’s educational system.
“In many places, they let the children cheat. You go to places, and the teachers are conniving with the students to cheat. The effect will be seen later,” Mahama said.
Vice President Bawumia, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Education Ministry, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Abronye DC, a regional chairman of the NPP are among those criticizing him.
They believe Mahama was dismissing the young SHS graduates’ efforts for achieving in their pre-tertiary examinations. Some even said that Mahama was merely trying to tarnish the government’s Free SHS program’s achievements.
WAEC video on 2023 irregularities WASSCE
In a video posted on the exam organizer’s official YouTube website in September 2023, John K. Kapi, Head of Public Affairs, WAEC Ghana, revealed that schools were involved in persuading pupils to cheat during the examinations.
The WAEC Conference Room update focused on the Conduct of the 2023 WASSCE for School Candidates 2023.
“Some of the schools have devised grand schemes for cheating at their examination centers,” he said adding that schools charged students between 500 – 1000 cedis to help them get assistance during examination.
He further stated that WAEC monitoring personnel were subjected to hostility from schools and that persons were detained for attempting to bribe WAEC monitors.
He also discussed the prevalence of foreign materials on candidates entering the rooms, social media photographs of questions, mainly taken by invigilators who take images and publish them on social media channels, and other transgressions.
Kapi also saw the smuggling of mobile phones and electrical devices into halls, as well as impersonation and the insertion of scripts as others.