Some Members of Parliament demanded an answer for the said expenditure
Education Minister, appearing before parliament noted that the action taken by government was done to improve the educational system
Dr. Yaw Adutwum, the Minister for Education, has explained why the government invested about GH¢33.6 million in the procurement of past questions for students writing the West African Senior High School Examination, WASSCE.
He explained that the initiative is part of the government’s efforts at enhancing the preparation of students ahead of their WASSCE.
Dr. Adutwum justified the expenditure, saying it was done in good faith to improve the education system of the country.
He reiterated that the initiative was to help students in deprived communities.
“For students in deprived schools, giving them access to previous examination questions and not just questions but questions and answers and the examiner’s report was important to them. Last year, what the Ministry of Education procured for the students was a great contribution,” Citinewsroom quoted him.
Government spent GH¢68,513,455.75 to buy past questions for WASSCE students in 2 years from the same sole-sourced supplier.
For this, the MP for Builsa South, Clement Apaak, posed questions to the Minister for Education on July 14, 2021, on the floor of parliament.
Here are the questions he posed to the Minister of Education as seen on his Facebook page:
1) To ask the Minister for Education if Government will procure and distribute past exam questions to final year students preparing to write WASSCE this year, 2021, and how this will be funded?
2) To ask the Minister for Education how much it cost the state to procure 568,755 past exam questions for students who wrote WASSCE in 2020, and the source of funds for the procurement. The written answers of the Minister, which he made in Parliament revealed the following.
He further stated in a Facebook post that the government in 2020 and 2021 spent GH¢68,513,455 from the Free Senior High School Account to procure 1,035,733 units of past exam questions for 2020 and 2021.
For this year, 2021, the government has already spent GH¢34,862,412 on 446,958 past questions at a unit price of GH¢78 from Messers Kingdom Books and Stationery via sole sourcing, at a unit price of GH¢59.
Mr Apaak asked “why government will spend GH¢68,513,455.75 to buy 1,035,733 exam questions through sole source from same company two years in a row and agree to pay for same exam questions at GH¢78 per unit, when it paid GH¢59 per unit only a year ago, at a whopping 32% increase, begs the question.”
He continued that, “Interestingly the price of textbooks used by Senior High School students have not increased over the period. So how can past cost of past exam questions increase by 32% from the same supplier? I will share the content of follow up questions and follow-ups by colleagues at a later date,” he revealed.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Education