Blame Private Schools For WASSCE Leakage � CHASS Sec

The Secretary of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) is calling on stakeholders in West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) organized examinations to blame private schools in the country for the regular leakage of question papers.

Samuel Gyebi Yeboah argued on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ Thursday that the private secondary schools in a bid to ensure that their candidates pass the West Africa African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) use various ‘ways and means’ to get the examination questions to their candidates before the examinations start.

“At the time when private schools were not that many in the system, there were hardly times when we experienced exam leakages…the private schools always want to be popular to increase admission so they end up finding ways and means of getting their candidates pass the examination,” he said.

The 2016 edition of the WASSCE Examinations currently on-going has been fraught with leakages of the question papers. Social media especially Whatsapp platforms have been the main avenue for the transmission of the questions to candidates.
The leakage which has become an annual ritual has led to calls on the examination regulation body to be up and doing and cancel the leaked papers where necessary.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe insists that the body would not cancel any of the leaked papers adding that WAEC would instead cause investigations into the circumstances that led to the leakage of the question papers.

“The council, with the assistance of the security agencies is tracking down these persons for prosecution. Candidates are cautioned to stay away from such materials as the council has the mechanism to detect those who benefit from the malpractice and would not hesitate to apply sanctions.

“Based on the foregoing and analysis of the reports received so far from the field, the council wishes to assure the general public that; the papers already written would not be cancelled, the remaining papers would be taken as scheduled and the investigations would continue and persons found culpable would be sanctioned as appropriate,” a statement from WAEC read in part.

But the CHASS secretary is of the firm conviction that WAEC’s investigation body would achieve the needed results if they focus on the private schools who he believe are always engaged in using ways and means to pass examinations.

He argued further that because the private schools make use of leaked papers, ‘apor’ to pass their examinations, candidates prefer going to register with them so they can also pass.

“Some of my students in recent times moved to go and register in a private school because they claim we don’t do well in our school but the teachers in the other private schools even teach the students in the exam centre for them to pass,” he said.

Mr. Gyebi Yeboah who was the least happy about the move by the candidates ‘have petitioned WAEC to check how final year students are allowed to go on transfer and register elsewhere.’

But his claim was disputed by Solomon Kofi Obeng, a teacher at the All for Christ School in Berekum, a private school who argued that proper supervision was the main key to the good performances of private schools in WAEC organized examinations.

“Unlike public schools, private schools have proper supervision because the proprietor would not pay you for you to come and fool about, private school teachers are never too known, they constantly refresh themselves…,” he said.

He added that private schools are also given the needed logistics to improve their work hence the argument that they must be blamed for the exam leakage is neither here nor there.

“Even at the time when there were no private schools in Brong Ahafo, there was still exam leakage, so where were the leakages coming from?” he said.

Source: The Herald�