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WASSCE 2021: Results were ‘engineered’ – Dr Apaak

A leading member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak, has criticised the recently-released results of the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) as made up to save the face of the struggling Free SHS policy.

The Ranking Member on the Committee and Minority MP for Builsa South said the word on the street is that the results were engineered.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) legislator made the allegation to counter a comment by President Nana Akufo-Addo that sought to call out critics of his Free SHS policy.

“Five years on following the implementation of the Free Senior High School programme, which has guaranteed a minimum of Senior High School education for 1.6 million Ghanaian children, I want to state, without any equivocation, that I am very proud of the policy and of its results thus far,” he said.

But in a Facebook post, Dr Apaak said the President was gloating over results that do not reflect the reality on the ground.

“President Akufo-Addo should be telling us what he has done to address the challenges debilitating effective teaching and learning in our secondary schools since he took over power, and retained it through ‘ways and means’ even when Ghanaians rejected him, including beneficiaries of fSHS, rather than gloating on results some suggest was procured through ‘engineering’ and comparing that to genuine and results by students under his predecessor.

“Akufo-Addo must be living in another planet or his handlers must have misled him to compare the engineered results procured through massive leakages, malpractices and cheating with the complicity of an examination body (WAEC), whose integrity is currently in question, to the authentic and organic results under JM and the NDC,” he said.

Speaking at the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) in Tamale, on Saturday, December 11, 2021, the President said the results of the 2020 and 2021 WASSCE results, give further evidence of why the Free SHS policy has been a success so far.

“There were some who described Free SHS as a waste. Some said it would destroy our Ivy League Schools, and some indicated that the policy was going to compromise the quality of senior high school education. None of these have happened, and I am sure they have eggs on their faces now or should have,” President Akufo-Addo stated.

The President added: “The 2021 WASSCE results of the second batch of the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ shows 54.08% of students recording A1-C6 in English, as opposed to 51.6% in 2016; 65.70% recording A1-C6 in Integrated Science in 2021, as opposed to 48.35% in 2016; 54.11% recording A1-C6 in Mathematics, as compared to 33.12% in 2016; and 66.03% recording A1-C6 in Social Studies, as compared to 54.55% in 2016. Lest we forget, the 2021 batch of students were the pioneers of the double-track system, which elicited a lot of vilification and unfounded criticism on its introduction.”

But reacting to the comment, Dr Clement Apaak stated that the President seems to have been misled to think that the fake results for the periods he referred to can surpass that of former President John Dramani Mahama.

“JM didn’t procure and supply past examination questions and examiners reports as part of an effort to cover up monumental challenges affecting teaching and learning at the secondary school level: Obnoxious double track, erratic academic calendar, overworked teaching and non-teaching staff, inadequate and unwholesome food, inadequate space and furniture, culture of silence, lack of adequate core subject textbooks, the delay in release of funds among others.

“JM built new secondary schools, expanded existing schools, didn’t punish school heads for speaking out, didn’t overburden teaching and non-teaching staff, didn’t supply expired unwholesome and expired food items to schools. Under JM 22 SHS didn’t score zero,” Dr Apaak said.

Read Dr Apaak’s full comments below.

President Akufo-Addo should be telling us what he has done to address the challenges debilitating effective teaching and learning in our Secondary schools since he took over power and retained it through “ways and means” even when Ghanaians rejected him, including beneficiaries of fSHS, rather than gloating on results some suggest was procured through “engineering” and comparing that to genuine and results by students under his predecessor.

Akufo-Addo must be living in another planet or his handles must have misled him to compare the engineered results procured through massive leakages, malpractices and cheating with the complicity of an examination body (WAEC), whose integrity is currently in question, to the authentic and organic results under JM and the NDC.

JM didn’t procure and supply past examination questions and examiners reports as part of an effort to cover up monumental challenges affecting teaching and learning at the secondary school level: Obnoxious double track; Erratic academic calendar; overworked teaching and un-teaching staff; inadequate and unwholesome food; inadequate space and furniture; Culture of silence; lack of adequate core subject textbooks; delay is the release of funds among others. JM built new secondary schools, expanded existing schools, didn’t punish school heads for speaking out, didn’t overburden teaching and non-teaching staff, didn’t supply expired unwholesome and expired food items to schools. Under JM 22 SHS didn’t score zero.

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