Minister expresses satisfaction with conduct of WASSCE
The Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has expressed her satisfaction with the conduct of the West African Secondary School Examination (WASSCE) in some senior high schools (SHSs) in Accra so far, despite the inability of some of the students to identify her.
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Prof. Agyemang, who looked visibly shocked when about 40 final-year students of the Labone Senior High School could not identify her, encouraged all final-year SHS students to write the examination confidently.
She was accompanied by some officials of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service when she toured some selected SHSs in the Greater Accra Region to assess the conduct of the ongoing WASSCE.
Assessment of schools
Schools she visited included the Labone Senior High School, La Presbyterian Senior High School, Teshie Presbyterian Senior High School, Nungua Senior High School and the Kaneshie Senior High Technical School. The final-year students were writing the English Language paper but none of the schools she visited faced any challenges with the conduct of the examination.
It was, however, sad to see first-year students of the La Presbyterian Senior High School (La PRESEC) studying under trees because their classrooms were being used for the WASSCE.
Minister of Education
According to Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, the invigilators, students and administrators of the various schools she visited had instituted adequate measures to ensure the smooth administration of the examinations.
“We are impressed with what we have witnessed today and I hope that the conditions are the same nationwide”, she said.
She added that the assessments made during the tour would inform the Ministry of Education’s future preparations towards examinations in the various SHSs.
Prof. Agyemang also indicated that the Ministry of Education would complete all uncompleted structures in all the schools.
From Kumasi
Daniel Kenu reports that 62,422 students in the Ashanti Region, 51 per cent of them girls, are taking part in this year's WASSCE; the highest ever.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Samuel Yaw Adusei, led a high-powered delegation including the Regional Director of Education, Kofi Sarfo Katanka, to tour some selected senior high schools in Kumasi. They included Opoku Ware and Anglican Senior High. She also went to the West African Examinations Council exams centre where three schools were writing the examinations.
The Komfo Anokye Senior High had been moved to the WAEC centre because of alleged examination malpractices by the school over the years.
One thousand and forty-two students joined a private institution, Success City Academy, at the centre, in what has been described by invigilators as a trouble-free examination.
The deputy minister commended the students, especially the girls, for outnumbering their male counterparts for the first time. Only two students, one currently outside the country and another who deferred writing the examinations on the grounds that he was not fully prepared, were absent.
Background
In all, 242,152 candidates, comprising 126,919 males and 115,238 females, are writing the examination at 809 centres in different parts of the country. The curtain will be brought down on the examination on May 16, 2014 with Management in Living, being the last paper to be written by candidates from only Liberia and Ghana.