Two Ghanaian students win WAEC international awards
Two Ghanaian students have won this year’s West African Examinations Council (WAEC) International Excellence Award instituted by the council. The two, were part of three Ghanaian students who had earlier picked the WAEC Distinction Awards this year.
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Mr Pius Kyere, a former student of St James Seminary Senior High School in Sunyani and Mr Benjamin Bortey Sango, a former student of Accra Academy in Accra placed first and second, respectively, in the WAEC International Excellence Awards.
The awards are to be conferred on them in Nigeria later this month during the WAEC Annual General Meeting.
Awards
For placing first in the Distinction Award, Mr Kyere, who is currently studying at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, took home $600 from the WAEC Endowment Fund. He was also offered full scholarship by the United Merchant Bank (UMB) for his tertiary education in Ghana. The bank also presented him with a laptop.
Mr Kyere, who was also adjudged the overall best Student in the General Science programme, received $400 and a laptop from WAEC.
Mr Sango, on the other hand, received $500 from the WAEC Endowment Fund, $2,000 cash and $3,000 investment from FirstBanc Financial Service and a laptop from the UMB for placing second. Mr Sango is studying at the United World College in Italy.
Mr Richmond Kwame Mensah, a former student of St James Seminary/Senior High School in Sunyani, who was third, also received $400 from the WAEC Endowment Fund, $1,000 and a laptop from Bond Financial Services.
Other winners
For picking the overall best candidate in the General Arts category, Sedinam Adwoa Botwe, a former student of Wesley Girls’ High School, Cape Coast, received $400 and laptop from Kingdom Books and Stationery Ltd.
Domuah Aillen, a former student of the Akosombo International School and Kpodo Courage, formerly of the Anglican Senior High School in Kumasi were adjudged overall best in Business and Visual Arts programmes, respectively. For their prizes, they each took home $400 and a laptop donated by Kingdom Books and Stationery Ltd.
All the schools that produced winners had a plaque each.
Criteria
Giving the criterion for the awards, the Head of National Office of WAEC, Very Rev. Sam Nii Nmai Ollennu, explained that for a candidate to be considered for the award, the person must have obtained eight grade ‘A1s’.
He said 344 out of the 274,262 candidates who sat for the exams, met the criteria out of which the three topmost students were picked.
On the overall performance of the candidates, Rev. Ollennu said they performed slightly better than their counterparts in the previous year, citing, for instance, 51.6 per cent of the candidates obtained grades A1 to C6 as against 45.2 per cent in 2015.
For the Integrated Science, there was a significant increase from 28 per cent in 2015 to 48 per cent in 2016, while in Mathematics, there was a slight improvement of 33.12 per cent as against 32.4 per cent in 2015.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, interacting with Mr Jacob Kor (right), the Director General, GES
Examination malpractice
Very Rev. Ollennu dismissed the notion that WAEC was interested in failing students, saying, “On the contrary, WAEC wants the candidates to pass because their success is our pride and joy.”
Referring to examination malpractices, he said with the installation of a new anti-malpractice software, Item Differentia Profile (IDP), 2,293 candidates who were identified to have cheated had their relevant subject results cancelled.
Very Rev. Ollennu appealed to supervisors and invigilators to be more vigilant, pledging that WAEC would put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure examinations were conducted successfully.
The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, congratulated the award winners and urged them to work even harder in subsequent examinations.
