The Members of Parliament for Builsa South and Akatsi North, Dr. Clement Apaak and Peter Nortsu-Kotoe have filed a private members’ motion demanding a probe into alleged irregularities and alleged malpractice in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
The two MPs want the investigation to cover the examinations organized from 2011 to 2021.
The MPs want the honourable house to constitute as a matter of urgency, a bi-partisan committee to investigate the allegations.
The areas of interest they want to be investigated are irregularities, leakages of examination papers, and related malpractices in examinations conducted within the period stated above.
Meanwhile, a report by Africa Education Watch, policy research, and advocacy organizations has revealed that the online monitoring embarked by them proved the growing incidence of a highly organized examination malpractice syndicate and its normalization as a culture in many schools.
The report disclosed that stakeholders include students, teachers, heads of schools, parents, WAEC supervisors, invigilators, and security officials.
The report added that the collective role of these stakeholders involved mobilizing cash from students one-month prior to commencement of examinations, securing and solving questions for students through school WhatsApp platforms ahead of papers.
The report also identified the provision of security to enable cheating in examination centres, permitting the use of mobile phones in examination centres to openly dictating answers to students in some centres.
Aside from these things, the online monitoring also affirmed previous findings in the 2020/WASSCE suggesting a multi-million business enterprise built on leakage question papers from uncertain sources, and marketed to students, teachers, and school owners using Telegram, a social media platform that operates without a sim card or a static IP address making it virtually impossible to track.
The report identified 20 of such platforms with a combined subscription of over 200,000 members with questions sold between Ghc30 and Ghc150 per paper.
Dr. Apaak is therefore asking if their motion filed and the report released is not a coincidence.
For him, the motion filed is credible and has merit because the report from the advocacy organization has revealed some troubling matters.
He believes the matter must not be trivialized in any shape or form.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
