Tell the public if buying pasco for WASSCE students is now a policy- Apaak

The Deputy Ranking Member of the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak has questioned the rationale behind the purchase of past examination questions for students who will be sitting for this year’s West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

According to him, the decision to buy past questions “PASCO” is unnecessary, demanding the government to state publicly whether the buying of past questions is now a policy.  

Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum told parliament that so far, 446,958 past questions at a unit price of GHS78 have been procured for the 2021 WASSCE candidates.

This is a 32 percent increase in the unit price of last year’s.

Last year the government after procuring past questions for students in what many popularly refer to as “Nana Students” attributed the purchases to the onset of Coronavirus, which did not allow them enough time to study because all schools were closed down.

But Clement Apaak who is also the Member of Parliament for Builsa South said “The Minister must come clear and tell us whether this has become a policy now. I believe strongly that the procurement and distribution of past questions would soon be listed as one of the variables in defining free SHS. In my public engagement with the Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Ntim Fordjour, he indicated that the government doesn’t want to burden parents and so by inference this is being seen as free education and so they should come clear and tell us,” he told Alfred Ocansey on 3FM’s Sunrise morning show on Thursday.

According to Clement Apaak, once the public knows that the procurement of past papers is now a policy the state will now budget for it.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare says the sole sourcing of the past questions instead of competitive bidding is questionable.