Former President John Dramani Mahama, has recently come under fire for comments about the integrity of the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2024 flagbearer, raised concerns about the authenticity of the 2023 WASSCE results ostensibly due to the massive passes recorded.
Mahama alleged instances of lax invigilation and teacher involvement in student cheating, warning of potential consequences for 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.
Those attacking him include Vice President Bawumia, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Education Ministry, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as well as Abronye DC, a regional chairman of the NPP.
They hold that Mahama was belittling the efforts that the young SHS graduates deserved for excelling in their pre-tertiary exams. Some went as far as stating that Mahama was only seeking to taint the successes of government’s Free SHS programme.
WAEC video on irregularities during 2023 WASSCE
In a video on the official YouTube page of the exam organized back in September 2023, John K. Kapi, Head of Public Affairs, WAEC Ghana, admitted to schools having been complicit in getting students to cheat during the said exams.
The update, at the WAEC Conference Room, was generally 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 examinations.
He added that WAEC monitoring teams faced hostilities from schools and that people have been arrested for attempting to bribe WAEC monitors.
He also spoke about the incidence of foreign materials on candidates entering the halls, snapshots of questions on social media, usually by invigilators who take photos and share on social media channels, as other infractions.
Kapi also noted the smuggling of mobile phones and electronic gadgets into halls and impersonation, insertion of scripts as others.
