The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the percentage of students that passed in this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) could be misleading.
The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) is reported to have announced that out of the over 376, 000 candidates who sat the examination, 99.6% passed, and therefore, qualifies to gain access to any SHS and other vocational institutions in the country.
Addressing journalist in Accra yesterday, the Communication Director of the party, Nana Akomea, questioned the credibility of the figures, and accused government of serious manipulation.
“... Is it possible that within one year you will improve the performance of children by 53.2% when consistently your rate of improvement fluctuates plus or minus 2%?” Nana Akomea probed.
“Historically, you’ve done this over donkey years and all you are getting is two plus or minus percent then in one year your pass rate jumps to 53% and it doesn’t cause you to be curious and find out whether suddenly our children by drinking some water have become more intelligent and brilliant or that suddenly our teachers are doing far better.”
Nana Akomea, who is also the Member of Parliament for Okainkoi South argued: “53% in the average growth of 2%, plus or minus is a huge job and the query we have to do is how did this happen. If it’s for a good reason then it means whatever we are doing has to be repeated, if documents or results are being falsified then we also ought to know.”