The Council believes this is  particularly important as the number of candidates keeps increasing.

At an educational seminar for the media in Accra on Tuesday, journalists were taken through WAEC’s operational procedures, trends in examination malpractices and strategies being implemented to curb the canker, the item differentia profile software and the WAEC law.

The speakers included Reverend Ollenu, Head of National Office of WAEC; J. Vanderpuije, acting Head of test Administration Division; C. K. Osafo, Acting Head, Test Development Division; W. E. Addy-Lamptey, Head of National Exams Administration Department and Reverend V. Brew.

The Head of National Office of WAEC, Rev. Samuel Ollennu, among other things urged journalists to be educative in their reportage on exams in the country.

He also called on them to collaborate and partner WAEC to curb exam malpractices.

WAEC cancelled five papers in the 2015 BECE: the English Language 2; Religious and Moral Education; Integrated Science; Mathematics, and Social Studies.

The cancellation followed the discovery that those papers had leaked thus compromising the integrity of the exam.

The Bureau of National Investigations [BNI], also waded into the matter to bring the culprits to book. The leaked papers were subsequently re-taken on June 29 and 30, 2015.

A total of 438,030 candidates, made up of 229,724 males and 208,306 females, took part in the examination.

About 13,434 basic schools, both public and private, took part in the examination which was written at 1,546 centres across the country.

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By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’ll improve our detection of exam leaks, cheating – WAEC appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking today [Tuesday] at a seminar for journalists, Head of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Rev. Samuel Ollennu said the move will guarantee that the nine terms allocated to teaching and learning in second cycle schools are fully exhausted by students before the examination.

“We are here to sanitize you about the forthcoming examination, which this time around is not starting February but on April 3. Formerly, we were going to start in February but the government appealed to us not to”, he said.

In November last year, the Minister of Education announced the proposal, citing that students need adequate time for preparation, and after consultation with the West African Examination Council (WAEC), the date was reviewed.

The Ministry of Education was in talks with the West African Examination Council last year November (WAEC), to ensure that from 2018, the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would be written in May.

Successive governments have considered various ways to aid the preparations of candidates for their final exams, including toying with the SHS duration.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s government changed the three year SHS duration system in 2007 to four years, due to similar concerns being raised by Opoku Prempeh.

But the National Democratic Congress (NDC) reversed it back to three years, claiming the four-year duration brought undue hardships to parents.

It appears the Akufo-Addo government is seriously considering extending the length to four years again.

The Minister of Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour in September 2017 revealed that government is monitoring the three-year SHS system to inform a possible review back to four years.

“The time lost, we have to make it up. That is the first thing that we are trying to do now, and based on that, we can now use the analysis that they do after that time, to see what the public thinks and to decide on whether we move for three years or four years,” he added.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post WAEC moves WASSCE to April to aid students’ preparations appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Ministry of Education met with the West African Examination Council (WAEC) last year, to initiate processes to move the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) from February to May.

This move, the Ministry said, is to guarantee that the nine terms allocated to teaching and learning in Senior High Schools (SHS) are fully exhausted by students as required by the syllabus.

WAEC has also delayed 2018’s exams by a month to give candidates more time to prepare.

This delay will also take effect in the four other English-speaking West African countries; Gambia, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone, who take part in the examination.

Speaking to Citi News, Deputy Education Minister in charge of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum confirmed the date changes, stating that it was done in the best interests of the students.

“I want to assure you that, at least we have about a month, our exams are not going to begin in February, so it will be delayed and moved back, the last testing day will be June 1^st, which has never happened for many years,” he said.

The Minister of Education who spoke at the Meet-The-Press series on November 30, 2017 said the change is expected to improve results for final year students since they would have adequate time to prepare.

Politics of 3/4 year SHS duration

Successive governments have toyed with the duration of second-cycle schooling in Ghana.

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s government changed the three-year SHS  system in 2007 to four years, due to concerns that candidates were not given enough time to complete their syllabus before sitting for the exams.

But the National Democratic Congress (NDC) reversed the decision when they regained power, claiming the four-year duration brought undue hardships to parents.

It, however, appears the Akufo-Addo government is seriously considering re-extending the term to four years.

The Minister of Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour in September 2017 revealed that government is monitoring the three-year SHS system to inform a possible review back to four years.

“The time lost, we have to make it up. That is the first thing that we are trying to do now, and based on that, we can now use the analysis that they do after that time, to see what the public thinks and to decide on whether we move for three years or four years,” he added.

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By: Farida Yusif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post WAEC moves WASSCE to May to aid candidates’ preparations appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The results of 1,873 candidates, alleged to have been involved in various examination malpractices, have been withheld pending the conclusion of investigations into the cases.

This was in a statement signed by Reverend Victor Brew, the acting Director, on behalf of the Head of the National Office of WAEC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday.

It said the withheld results would be released as soon as the Council concludes its investigations.

The statement said candidates may access their results online at www.waecgh.org.

It alerted members of the public to be wary of the activities of fraudsters who would contact candidates with the promise of bettering their results for a fee payable through mobile money transfers.

The statement assured the public that the Council’s results database was well secured, and as such, all forged results could be detected by the confirmation or verification system.

“Institutions and organisations are advised to confirm or verify results presented to them directly from the Council or access the confirmation or verification service online at the WAEC website.

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Source: GNA

The post WASSCE: 1,873 Private candidates’ results withheld for alleged cheating appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The registration fee is GHc 75 per candidate in both private and government schools.

This was contained in a memo sighted by Citi News, from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to the Metropolitan, Municipal, District and Directors of Education.

The registration for the candidates is scheduled to take place from November 13 to December 15, 2017.

Students resitting are to register as private candidates.

WAEC warned the directors of education in the memo that it will “nullify entries of private schools that select school types wrongly and thereby do not pay fees.”

This marks the Akufo-Addo government’s latest intervention in public education after the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy which started in with the 2017/2018 academic year SHS entrants.

The BECE is required for both the certification and selection into Senior High Schools and Technical Institutions.

Is basic education really free?

The implementation of the Free Senior High School is good news for parents whose wards enrolled in second cycle institutions this year. However, for some parents in public basic schools, especially the Junior High School, the notion that basic education in Ghana is free under the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), is just a fallacy.

In September this year, Citi News’ Farida Shaibu and Akosua Ofewaa Opoku, who visited some public Junior High Schools report that no student is admitted without having to pay for tuition, exercise books and in some cases, desks.

One of such schools is the Kwabena Atomic M/A 3 & 4 JHS located in the Dome Kwabenya constituency, where the education of a 12-year old prospective JHS girl was put on hold because her mother could not afford an amount of Ghc250 which was the total sum to be paid for various things demanded by the school.

Currently, Ghana has almost 10,000 public basic schools and public secondary schools hover around 578. The transition rate from Primary 6 to JHS1, according to the 2016 Education Sector Performance Report, has reduced by 4.4 percent nationally. This is from 99.1% in 2014/15, to 94.7% in 2015/16 academic year.

For deprived districts, this decline was even steeper: from 91.7% to 83.2% in 2015/2016.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) seems unaware that schools are charging what they term as unapproved fees. When contacted, the Public Relations Officer for the service, Reverend Jonathan Bettey, was furious about the development.

But on the minds of many Ghanaians, the question still remains as to why government is sponsoring Free SHS when the very foundation, JHS, is being neglected? With the current situation, only parents who can afford to pay over GHC400 per term can get their wards to finish JHS and progress to enjoy Free SHS.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Gov’t to pay 2018 BECE registration fees for candidates appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

They have moved a step further to the Northern Regional Secretariat of the Legal Aid Board to initiate processes that could lead to seeking legal redress if the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), fails to rectify the problem within one week.

Their Spokesperson, Zakaria Hawa, in a Citi News interview accused WAEC of attempting to shortchange their children’s academic future.

She challenged WAEC to prove that their children indeed engaged in examination malpractices particularly during the Mathematics paper.

She said their wards are ever prepared to rewrite the Mathematics paper if WAEC can convince them beyond reasonable doubt.

According to Zakaria Hawa, they promptly responded to a query submitted to them by the Sagnarigu district directorate of education.

Below is the response letter.

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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post WAEC to face more lawsuits for withholding BECE results appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

They today (Monday) picketed at the Tamale Metropolitan directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and petitioned the Director there.

They further petitioned WAEC to solve the problem by the close of September 2017 or face a legal action.

[contextly_sidebar id=”QGjSQBVJSUyjm0Arh8sCzAgJxSp1shCB”]”We expect our problem to be solved at least by 30th of September because we don’t want our children to be late reporting to school.”

The 19 students whose fate is hanging in the balance, had aggregate 10, 11 and 12 respectively, for which reason their parents are traumatized by the hiccup.

They missed the free Senior High School placements opportunity because WAEC is withholding their results claiming that they engaged in examination malpractices particularly the Mathematics paper.

The livid parents’ spokesperson, Abdulai Freeman Baba, told Citi News that WAEC has unfairly treated their children, hence their threat to seek legal redress.

“Exams council is unfair with us because they served us a letter late asking us to explain why our children’s results should not be withheld.”

“They gave us only one week to respond. We quickly wrote a letter and forwarded it to them. After that, instead of the initial directive that the results were withheld, it was now written that cancelled, which meant they had already taken a firm decision.”

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By:Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Tamale: Angry parents threaten to sue WAEC over withheld BECE results appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

WAEC withheld 1,298 subject results of some candidates who sat for the examination on suspicion that they may have engaged in examination malpractices.

[contextly_sidebar id=”8EVOBob7bq3SnbeJmf0WR9b61m4y9Z96″]According to the Head of Public Affairs of the West Africa Examination Council, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, students whose results were withheld will be able to see if their results were cleared by end of day today [Tuesday].

“At the meeting, we decided to take action and by the close of work today when candidates go online and check their results, they’ll be able to know their fates,” she told Citi News.

“We’ve taken action on all the results so whether it will be released or cancelled, action has been taken. I’ll not be able to give details on how many have been cancelled and how many have been released now.”

She also confirmed that the schools in which the “irregularities” were detected had already been written to “and we’re waiting for the responses.”

The affected candidates were cited for various malpractices during and after the examination.

According to Agnes Tei Cudjoe, the number excludes candidates who were detected by the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software to have cheated in the object test.

A total of 468,060 candidates sat for this year’s examination. The number comprises 241,145 males and 226,906 females.

According to WAEC, the number represents a 1.53 percent increase from the 2016 figure. It noted that, 3,315 of the registered candidates did not turn up for the examination sitting.

The candidates were from a total of 15,185 schools and the examination took place at 1,702 examination centres.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post WAEC completes probe into over 1,000 withheld BECE results appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

These candidates were unable to write the English and Religious and Moral Education papers during the 2017 BECE.

[contextly_sidebar id=”cVlpRuoKbMglcncAdLqElQZtU2V8uU5Q”]The Assembly member for Kambatiak, James Duut Yogarin, who confirmed this to Citi News, expressed optimism that all of the stranded candidates would be placed.

“Some have started checking their placement and they have gotten schools… I have not gotten all the information but those I have asked so far, they have gotten placement. I believe that all of them will be placed,” Duut Yogarin said.

A last minute change in the examination centre meant the students were unable to sit for the first two papers. The new centre was too far from the communities that the candidates hailed from.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), later assured that the 200 candidates would be placed in various Senior High Schools to further their education.

WAEC had previously said the candidates would have had to re-sit the two papers in February 2018, but this was met with some criticism from the public, with a Child’s Right advocacy group, Child Rights International going as far as dragging WAEC to court.

The court is yet to pass judgement on matter, but WAEC says, despite the decision to place the students in some schools, they would still be given the opportunity to re-sit the two papers in February 2018.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post ‘Stranded’ Bunkpurugu BECE candidates get SHS placement appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

1,298 candidates will, however, have to wait longer for their results amidst suspicions of examination malpractices, according to a statement from WAEC.

These candidates were found to have cheated in the objective test section of the examination by the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software.

The withheld results will be released after investigations into the various cases of examination malpractice are concluded.

468,060 candidates sat for the examination, comprising 241,145 males and 226,906 females; a 1.53 percent increase in 2016.

3,315 of these registered candidates did not turn up for the examination sitting.

The candidates were from a total of 15,185 schools and the examination took place at 1,702 examination centres.

WAEC is in the process of dispatching the results to the Schools via the Municipal and District Directors of Education.

In the meantime, the results can be accessed online on WAEC’s website.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Provisional 2017 BECE results released, 1,298 cited for cheating appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.