•Exams malpractice must be criminalized
• 2021 WASSCE questions were sold between GHC30 to GHC150
As part of the efforts to curb examination malpractices and leakages, the former Director for Ghana Education Service, Charles Aheto Tsegah, has proposed a review of punishment given to offenders.
According to him, examination malpractice should be no longer be considered as a misdemeanour but rather a criminal offence.
Speaking at the launch of the Eduwactch 2021 WASSCE Ghana monitoring report, Charles Aheto Tsegah, said there is a need for culprits to be prosecuted when engaging in exams malpractice. He believes this will deter people from engaging in these activities.
"Our sanctions for examination malpractices are all misdemeanours but let's move it from that and make a criminal act such that individuals who are caught or implicated in examination malpractice will face the law based on criminal action. We need that to be able to strengthen the punishment,” he said.
His comment follows recent leakages and exam malpractices that have been reported in the past two years.
A report by Eduwatch revealed that about 11 papers out of 20 papers were leaked in the 2021 WASSCE.
Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has also revealed how multi-million businesses enterprises were established just to leak question papers from uncertain sources.
These platforms are marketed to students, teachers, and school owners using a social media platform, Telegram.
Eduwatch, as part of the investigation, subscribed to over 20 platforms with a combined subscribership of over 200,000 members with questions sold for between GHC30 and GHC150 per paper.
"Elective mathematics was the highest priced question, these payments were made via mobile money after which the team got enrolled on paid platforms where questions were delivered up to ten hours before the paper," Eduwatch report indicated.
