Contents of EduWatch Report on 2021 WASSCE is Untrue and Misleading - Agnes Teye-Cudjo
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| Agnes Teye-Cudjo, Head of Public Affairs, WAEC |
The head of public affairs of the West African Examination Council Ghana, Mrs. Agnes Teye-Cudjoe has revealed that the contents of EduWatch Report is misleading and untrue.
According to her, the Council has reviewed the contents of the Report and has observed that most of the issues raised in the Report were matters that had engaged the attention of the Council during the conduct of the examination and had consequently been addressed them.
speaking at a press conference at the WAEC headquarters, Mrs. Agnes Teye-Cudjo noted that there are some inaccuracies contained the report for instance, a sample frame of one hundred (100) schools from which Eduwatch received information on alleged examination malpractices during the 2020 WASSCE was drawn, out of which fifty (50) schools which were examination centres were purposively selected based on our ability to undertake a successful entry and monitoring.
It must be pointed out that Insaniyaa SHS (No. 12), one of the schools that
was reported to have been monitored by Eduwatch does not currently exist.
The school was closed down in January 2021. No candidate was registered
by Insaniyaa SHS, for the WASSCE (SC) 2021, neither was the school used as
an examination centre.
Beposoman Muslims SHS (No. 1)is not on the Council's list of participating
schools for WASSCE (SC) 2021. Rather, the list of schools for the examination
includes Ghana Muslim Mission SHS, Beposo (No. 40.)
Yet still, the Council does not have any record of Kikam SHTS (No. 14) on its
list of schools for WASSCE.
"We wish to further state that the Council has taken serious notice of the allegations
made in the Report of malpractices in certain schools and will probe the issue further
to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the claims made" she said.
She stated that the Council has taken serious notice of the allegations made in the Report of malpractices in certain schools and will probe the issue further to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the claims made.
The Eduwatch Report claimed that a total of 11 papers leaked during the examination. First of all, the term "leaked" or leakage" as applied to examinations conducted by the Council is a question of law and facts. Now to some specifics.
The Council has addressed the issue of Foods and Nutrition Paper 3 on
several occasions and we find it baffling that Mr. Kofi Asare continues to refer to this paper as having leaked when he was the very person that
forwarded the fake paper to us. One wonders why Mr. Kofi Asare would send false information when he had the actual.
English Lanquage 2 and Mathematics (Elective) 2
In the case of these two papers, the Office had indicated in its Second Update
held on 23rd August, 2021 that after scrutiny of the several versions received, it detected that extracts of the questions were included in the versions that had been received earlier by our monitoring team from various social media platforms and Telegram channels. They also indicated that WAEC was going to deploy various internationally accepted assessment procedures and interventions to ensure credibility of the results for those papers. The Council's security tracked and arrested Jerusalema (Godfred Darko), the
Source of the handwritten questions for Mathematics (Elective) 2 and handed
him over to the police. Investigations are ongoing.
On 15th September, 2021, the Council as we are all aware, rescheduled Physics 2 & 1 because its underground intelligence picked up signals that the paper was Compromised. The rescheduled paper was conducted
successfully on 1st October, 2021.
Biology 3 (Practical-Alternative A), Practical Instructions for Biology 3 were issued to schools on 3 september, 2021, two clear weeks ahead of the examination to enable the schools make adequate preparation for the paper. The Instructions were in the schools as
at the time of the alleged leakage on 12th and 16th September, 2021.
Mathematics (Core)2 & 1, Economics 2 and Integrated Science 2.
For all the above papers, a number of questions were posted on WhatsApp
groups, rouge websites and Telegram channels. Checks indicated that
they were fake. Marking of scripts is however ongoing and any irregularities detected will be investigated and the scripts scrutinized.
Chemistry, this is a composite paper. This means that Chemistry 2 & 1 were both in
the same question paper booklet. On 28th September, 2021 at 12:15 pm, WAEC depots started issuing Chemistry 2 & 1 to the supervisors. As at 12:55 p.m. when Eduwatch alleges that Chemistry 1 leaked, the composite paper which contained both Chemistry 2 (Essay) and Chemistry 1 (Objective) had been distributed to candidates to enable them start work on Chemistry 2
which was scheduled for 1:00 pm. The time given in the Report implies that candidates had already been admitted to the examination hall and had possession of the question paper. Any snapshot and circulation of the
objective section (Chemistry 1) would have taken place at the centre and thus constitute an inside-examination-hall malpractice and not a leakage.
Integrated Science 1, the explanation given above, can be made for Integrated Science 1 which Eduwatch claimed leaked at 8:59 a.m.
This is because when candidates started work at 8:30 a.m. they had both components of the paper (Essay and objective). Any circulation of the snapshots of the paper (Integrated Science 1) cannot be described as leakage, rather an examination malpractice
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By Elvis Kumah Sampson
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