WAEC leaks. We are in real trouble
By virtue of my current membership of the governing councils of the two secondary schools I attended – West Africa Senior High School (WASS) in Accra, and Konongo / Odumasi Senior High School (KOSS), I can say with confidence that I am abreast of what goes on in our second cycle schools today.
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A lot of changes have taken place in our senior high schools over the years. Call it massive transformation and you will be right.
From independence to the early 60s, we had what we called encouraged and assisted secondary schools. Both groups could be classified as public schools. The assisted schools had full government support, while the second group had partial government support.
We sat for the same common entrance, though, to enter those schools but the assisted schools would take only candidates from Middle Form Two or Standard Five and a few from Form Three or Standard Six as they were called in those days.
The encouraged schools would take candidates from Form Three or those about to complete Form Four or Standard Seven, the final year in the basic or elementary school as it was known then.
Those who couldn’t go to assisted schools were always advised to choose encouraged schools in order not to miss the chance to go to secondary school before completing Form Four.
Among the assisted schools were Achimota, Prempeh, Opoku Ware, Mfantsipim, Adisadel and St. Augustine’s. Encouraged schools included Accra Academy, West Africa, Thomas Acquinas, Ebenezer, LaBone, O’reilly, Christian Methodist and Wesley Grammar.
It was not until about 1962, if my memory serves me right, that Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the President of the Republic, directed that the two categories of schools should be treated the same. There was to be no more encouraged or assisted. All became one.
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But there was no doubt the former assisted schools were better endowed with better facilities for teaching and learning and with more qualified teachers. It took some years before a semblance of parity was achieved.
Meanwhile, most of the parents whose children went to secondary school in the years immediately before independence and early years of nationhood were illiterate. We must salute them for the encouragement they gave us. But many did not know what it was all about going to school even if they knew the value of education.
So most of us were on our own. We had to work hard to pass our exams and move forward. There were few graduate teachers in the former encouraged schools that some of us attended. We only had experienced trained teachers who took us through. We rather used to boast of the number of US Peace Corps or British volunteer teachers we had.
Extra classes
There was nothing like extra classes. When normal classes were over the teachers went home and that was the end. We were all left on our own during prep time. We had to burn the midnight oil in order to pass our final exams. Every student bought a copy of the syllabus from WAEC and we made sure we covered all the grounds in the various subjects on our own.
It was only through hard work, perseverance and sheer determination that some of us made it to the university. Most of our parents did not know what we went through apart from the support they gave us.
At that time it never crossed anybody’s mind that exam questions could be leaked or students could have foreknowledge of the questions. Never!
Today, there are many, many more schools than we had in the 60s. Dr. Nkrumah set up the Ghana Educational Trust to establish secondary schools in every district across the country. These schools such as KOSS, Acherensua, Accra Girls, Navrongo, Ghanas, Tamale; Ghanas, Koforidua; Ghanata, Dodowa, Mfantsiman, Asangrankwa, Sunyani, can be counted among the leading schools in Ghana today.
At our last board meeting at KOSS last month when we met the teaching staff I was told there were over 140 of them. A couple of weeks ago when I attended the speech day of Kwanyarko Senior Technical High School, a smaller school, I got to know that the number of teachers was about 75.
Teachers and large student populations
There are still many graduates who are roaming the streets and who cannot be absorbed by so many schools who still need teachers. It is not like in the 70s or 80s when you could walk into any school with your certificate and a headmaster could employ you and send your name to the Ghana Education Service to be put on the payroll.
It was because of the quality of the teachers we had in our second cycle schools at that time that the students were able to pass with good grades. There was no difference between a rural school or those in the cities or the so-called well-endowed schools. They were all the same.
In recent times, the student population in most schools has bloated. These schools have only three forms but they can boast 2,500 students or more. Compare this to an average 500 in most schools 50 years ago. A number of schools had Form One to Upper Six. This was a time when there were only three universities, at Legon, Kumasi and Cape Coast.
Today we have eight or so many public universities, with another one in the offing and so many private universities spread across the county. Most students would like to attend the public universities where fees are more reasonable.
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Desperation to pass exam
We have, however, found ourselves in a situation where there is stiff competition to gain admission to our public universities since these institutions cannot admit all those who make the minimum grade.
It is this situation that has created all the problems we are having with examination malpractices. Students are ready to use all means, fair or foul to enter our public universities, with support from some parents, many of whom by their own level of education, are not supposed to support wrongdoing.
It is this desperation to pass their exam that has made teachers to also exploit the situation by organising extra classes for students at a cost. Parents are ready to pay for these extra classes while the Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) also try to find some extra money for teachers.
Even though the Ghana Education Service (GES) does not support extra classes, where teachers charge the students, it is done. The teachers would even want the fees for extra classes to be put on the bills for students so that it would be easier to collect the fees for the extra classes.
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What is very irritating is the way teachers now treat their students, especially those preparing for the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination(WASSCE). You can only receive tuition if you pay for extra classes. No teaching goes on in the normal teaching period for which teachers are paid by the government.
Bribery
If examination papers for WASSCE are leaked every now and then we must find the reason in what is happening today in our senior high schools and even also at the JHS. Students want to pass their exam by all means. They feel they must not depend too much on their teachers. Parents are left with no choice but to try and bribe those who conduct the exam, which is the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC).
It started with parents and students bribing the heads and some teachers to break into their strong rooms to get the question papers for their students.
However not all heads could be intimidated to release the question papers in advance. But some did. It came to a point where students in well-endowed schools who could not get their heads to show them the questions which they call “apor”, had to leave to go and register with mushroom schools or private schools, where they could get “apor”.
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Last year when my daughter was writing her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) I felt something was wrong. Even though I had forced her to study and prepare well she was not scared. I could smell a rat. There was every indication that some external hand was guiding them to pass their exam. I was not surprised when some of the papers were cancelled because she told me the “apor” they were given dropped.
After the cancellation she sat up and worked harder than I had seen which enabled her to go through.
Now this year we were told measures had been taken so that no paper would leak. Exam papers would be released from the strong room somewhere only two hours before the start of each paper. Everybody was happy.
It, therefore, came as a surprise when it was announced last week that questions for Oral English, Integrated Science and Social Studies had leaked. WAEC could not believe it. As far as WAEC was concerned, no paper leaked but they accepted the fact that some students had fore knowledge of the questions which was not their fault.
Now there is a girl aged about 17 or 18 who lives about four houses away. She comes to visit my daughter once in a while even though they are not classmates. She is a candidate this year.
When I saw her the day the exam papers were reported to have leaked, I asked her how things were going for her. She told me everything was good.
When I asked her whether some papers really leaked she said it was true. I asked how it happened. It was then she told me a number of them were on WhatsApp platform and they were told to look for the questions on their phones by midnight.
By midnight the thing was there. I asked her how much she paid. She said she paid nothing but some rich parents somewhere had paid for the question papers and they had engaged some administrator who made sure they all got the questions on their phone.
She was bold to tell me the questions came from WAEC and they were sent from Nigeria. She made me understand there were three sets of questions at any time and if one leaked, WAEC would go for the others. She said they had all the sets – word for word.
Are we not in trouble?