Ahead Of 2023 WASSCE: Former NAGRAT Boss,Kwami Alorvi Exposes Exam Invigilators And Headmasters

A former President of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Kwami Alorvi, has uncovered how some examination invigilators and headmasters of the schools were scheming to benefit financially from the candidates who are eligible to write the upcoming 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the country.

According to the seasoned educationalist, though examination malpractices have been part of the WASSCE in the past, they have undergone metamorphosis and assumed an alarming state since the outset of the free Senior High School (SHS) education policy.

He pointed out that the 2023 WASSCE begins with practicals on 31st July 2023.

"Our Research Team has tumbled over information that teachers in many schools across the regions have started collecting money from the WASSCE candidates with a view to allowing them to cheat in the upcoming examinations," hef

He asserted that their team members have received threats from some quarters warning us to stop our research because our publications "are embarrassing the government."

"For our Team,we will only stop when we have finished our job, not when we are tired, threatened, or scared.

He mentioned that the persistence of the examination malpractices is due to a multiplicity of factors among which are inertia by the Education Authorities, financial incapacitation of WAEC to have resources to monitor the conduct of the examination, and cancel and rerun fraudulent ones, as well as the commercialisation of the examination by Headmasters and teachers.

He indicated that some proposals have been put forward by our Team to halt the canker in our schools.

According to him, the evils we support today because of what we stand to benefit will be the fertilizer that will nurture our collective troubles in future.

Below is the article by Mr Alorvi.

KWAMI ALORVI ASKS, THE UPCOMING 2023 WASSCE: ANOTHER COCOA SEASON FOR INVIGILATORS AND THEIR HEADMASTERS?

SUMMARY

1. The Ministry of Education seems to have exited Ghana from the West African Examinations Council since 2020, and Ghana has been organising its own version of WASSCE.

2  Though examination malpractices have been part of the WASSCE in the past, they have undergone metamorphosis and assumed an alarming state since the outset of the free SHS.

3. The 2023 WASSCE begins with practicals on 31st July 2023

4. Our Research Team has tumbled over information that *teachers in many schools across the regions have started collecting money from the WASSCE Candidates with a view to allowing them to cheat in the upcoming Examinations.

5. Team members have received threats from some quarters warning us to stop our research because our publications "are embarrassing the government."

6. For our Team, *we will only stop when we have finished our job, not when we are tired, threatened, or scared.

7. The persistence of the examination malpractices is due to a multiplicity of factors among which are inertia by the Education Authorities, financial incapacitation of WAEC to have resources to monitor the conduct of the examination, and cancel and rerun fraudulent ones, as well as the commercialisation of the examination by Headmasters and teachers.

8. Some proposals have been put forward by our Team to halt the canker in our schools.

9. The evils we support today because of what we stand to benefit will be the fertilizer that will nurture our collective troubles in future.*l

Introduction

The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is a terminal examination for students of our Senior High Schools. Since 2020, the Ministry of Education appears to have exited the sub-regional body, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), and Ghana has been organising its own version of WASSCE.

Since then, the malpractices  in the WASSCE have assumed an alarming state, involving leakage of questions, massive cheating by students supported by some unscrupulous Headmasters, school proprietors, supervisors and invigilators, with an apparent tacit endorsement by officialdom.

Our Research Team has catalogued many instances of examination fraud in the WASSCE in the past, and one wonders why no action has so far been taken by those in authority to curb these malpractices. 

The 2023 Ghana version of the WASSCE is just about to begin with the practicals commencing on 31st July 2023. Our team has already picked signals of plans by many schools to engage in examination malpractices. Teachers have started collecting money from candidates in some schools in preparation for assisting them cheat in the examination. This has prompted our Team to sound the alarm bells so that the GES and WAEC can get their arsenals ready to confront the challenge.

*Threats to Team Members*

As our team began investigating information stumbled upon indicating the upcoming examinations might again witness massive cheating, we have received threats from some quarters to stop what they term *"embarrassing the government."

In fact, we were reminded of Isaac Asimov's famous saying that *when stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent."* It is as though we are being intimidated into accepting that when there is dishonesty in the system, it is unwise, or even unsafe, to be honest. 

We are not oblivious to the fact that the road to triumph is always full of tests, trials, and tribulations.

But we also believe that *where there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.* In the assignment we have taken upon ourselves to fight and rid the education system of examination malpractices, we will only stop when we have finished our job, not when we are tired, threatened, or scared. We know there will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how we use them.

Amidst the threats of harm, therefore, we have encouraged ourselves *to stop being worriers of the system and start being warriors against the system. We pray to Almighty God, that when our weaknesses grow beyond our resistance, He would remind us that His rod and staff are always with us to comfort and strengthen us.

As we turn our worries into worship, may our Father in heaven turn our battles into blessings. Threats or no threats, we shall soldier on.

The Metamorphorsis and Multiplicity of Reasons for Cheating.

These examination malpractices, which have been with us for ages, have undergone metamorphosis and have now become multifaceted. The major causes are examined below.

Inertia by the Education Authorities*

Politicisation of the free SHS from the outset has been the bane of the WASSCE. The rush manner in which the policy was implemented resulted in many challenges, including, but not limited to, overcrowding in schools leading to double tracking of students; erratic funding by government; and poor and inadequate food. Critics of the poor implementation of the free SHS policy have cited these challenges to drum home the message that quality of teaching and learning have been compromised.

They have argued that academic performance would fall as a result of the challenges the policy has been confronted with.

The government on the other hand, has persistently and consistently maintained that academic standards have not been negatively affected. Education authorities and government officials have lashed out at critics of the poor implementation, calling them "naysayers.

" The President of the Republic, H. E. Nana Akufo Addo had, on some occasions, told students to pass their examination *"to shame the naysayers "

These imperviousness to constructive criticism and the desire to *"shame the naysayers"* seemed to have pushed officialdom to orchestrate a deliberate covert policy to get good examination results with whatever means possible.

Heads of Senior High Schools were coerced and intimidated to ensure their students pass the WASSCE. They feared being removed from their positions if their schools didn't produce good results. Examination supervisors and invigilators were whipped in line by their Heads, resulting in massive cheating.

Teachers, including some Assistant Headmasters, who were supervisors of the examinations, had their property, such as farms, bungalows, and vehicles vandalised by irate students whenever they made efforts to stop the examination malpractices.

Some teachers have had threatening messages posted on their vehicles and doors by students. In all these, the government, or the GES, did not sanction any student who took part in the destruction of public or private property, or invigilators caught assisting students to cheat. 

This inertia by officialdom sent a signal to those honest teachers that the system would not protect them when they did the right thing.

Headmasters who resisted the examination malpractices had chiefs and queenmothers organise the community to demonstrate against them. Instead of protecting these Heads, some of them were transferred by the GES to less endowed schools while others were removed from their positions.

Teachers with conscience, and who valued their professional ethics, opted out of invigilation in order not to antagonise their Headmasters and the government. The result was a free for all cheating in many Senior High Schools,  especially the rural and suburban ones. 

Some grade 'A' Schools, feeling their academic performance status was being challenged by these grade "C" and "D" schools through fraudulent results, joined the cheating wagon. Only a few of the grade 'A' schools have still stuck to their tradition of attaining academic excellence through hard work, effective teaching, and supervision.

Failure by WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the body in charge of the examinations, has been rendered incapable of effectively organising and monitoring the examinations.

The government has absorbed almost all fees candidates used to pay towards these examinations prior to the free SHS policy, including registration, invigilation, and marking fees. Unfortunately, the government has failed to remit these absorbed fees to WAEC in full and in time. In fact, the government has been in arrears for many years. The resultant effects of this huge debt owed WAEC are many.

Firstly, WAEC had not been able to recruit adequate staff to monitor the conduct of the examinations in the schools. It is not uncommon to have one WAEC supervisor assigned to two or more districts, with five or more schools, which are several kilometres apart. For instance, one WAEC supervisor could be assigned to Ajumako and Ekumfi Districts, another to Assin South and Assin Central, or Nkwanta South and Nkwanta North Districts.

With schools of wide geographical spread and limited logistics for WAEC, one supervisor is not able to cover the schools during monitoring to stop the malpractices going on.

Another effect of government indebtedness to WAEC is the latter's inability to pay on time its examiners and invigilators. *As we write this piece, WAEC has not paid invigilators of the 2022 WASSCE, almost one year after the examinations were conducted.

Yet the 2023 WASSCE practicals are due to start on 31st July 2023. Information available to our Team indicates that invigilators of the 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) were paid only in June 2023, and that was because the 2023 BECE is around the corner in August, and the fear was that invigilators might boycott the examinatiins if their money was not paid to them. 

The third effect of government indebtedness to WAEC with the possibility of "a hair cut" due to Ghana's Domestic Debt Restructuring policy, is the unwillingness of WAEC to cancel and rerun examination papers that have leaked, or where schools have been caught in massive cheating.

The reason is simple: WAEC can't get the financial resources to organise a rerun of the examinations due to the government's indebtedness to it. The financial incapacitation of WAEC resulting in poor monitoring has incentivised schools to engage in fraudulent examination practices.

Commercialisation of WASSCE by Headmasters and Teachers

The initial desire by teachers and their Headmasters to connive with the politicisation of the free SHS for good academic results to "shame the naysayers" was without any monetary motive. But this has metamorphosed into a burning desire by teachers and Headmasters to make money. 

Some Headmasters have connived with school PTA Executives to extort money from candidates to assist them to cheat in the examinations. The loot is shared among invigilators,  school management, and the PTA at the end of the examinations.

This officially endorsed extortion of money by school authorities has also undergone metamorphosis with some Heads of Department and subject teachers now levying students in their schools.

With these levies collected by PTAs and Headmasters and, or teachers, question papers are smuggled out to secluded areas within the schools with tacit connivance of supervisors and, or, invigilators, for subject teachers to work out answers for candidates.

The answers are smuggled back to the examination rooms for students to copy. In the private schools, money paid by candidates grant them the chance to get people to write the examinations for them: impersonation!

Information our Team tumbled upon in eleven out of the sixteen regions, with over two hundred schools so far covered, indicates that levies ranging between fifty cedis (ghc50) and two hundred cedis (ghc200) per student are being collected by teachers from candidates with the promise of assisting them cheat in the examinations.

One teacher justified the collection of the money by insisting that WAEC had still not paid him for last year's WASSCE invigilation he did so he would get his money through other means.

Our team uncovered that money extorted from students during last year's WASSCE were deployed in various ways by teachers.

One invigilator was captured by a team member confessing that he used the money to pay for his rent advance. Three other teachers used the money to buy a flat - screen television set, spray his car, and buy a laptop computer, respectively. A young male teacher who is less than four years in the service used the loot to pay the dowry on his wife, according to  our team member in one school.

With the commercialisation of the WASSCE, the malpractices have entered into a new gear, and only heaven knows where the future of Ghana's education is heading towards.

Halting the Decay

Conscious efforts need to be made by the GES, WAEC, and indeed all Ghanaians who care about our education to halt this canker destroying our education system.

Sanction

The Director General of the Ghana Education Service must gather the moral courage to sanction Headmasters who allow these malpractices to take place in their schools. The Headmaster is the overall supervisor of the examinations in his school. 

If the Headmaster is held accountable for the misconduct of his Assistant Headmaster in charge of supervising the examinations, and the teachers in charge of invigilation, he will ensure that, his staff comply with regulations governing the conduct of the examinations.

Secondly, teachers caught engaged in the examination malpractices must be sanctioned with demotion in ranks and disciplinary transfers. 

GES must also surcharge all irate students who destroy property of the school or that of teachers who do not allow them to cheat in the examinations. These will serve as deterrent to others contemplating to engage in such acts.

WAEC must also be bold enough to sanction schools involved in examination malpractices by derecognising them as examination centers.

Resourcing WAEC

The government must resource WAEC by releasing all absorbed fees on time and in full, to enable it fund its operations. If the government can not carry the burden alone, it should be bold enough to revise the free SHS policy to allow parents to share the burden of paying for the registration of their wards. 

With adequate funds available, WAEC can recruit the adequate level of staff required to monitor the conduct of the examinations in the schools. If WAEC is adequately resourced, it could be in a position to cancel examination papers that are compromised and rerun them.

A Call to Duty by all Ghanaians

It is a fundamental truth that those who benefit from a failed system do not see the failures of the system.

 The more the system fails, the more "successful" they become. *While others demand for a better system  they will die to preserve the status quo.* That is why all hands of well meaning Ghanaians must be on deck.

We must all try as Ghanaians, as parents, teachers, or education managers, to reform the way our examinations are run if we don't want to produce future leaders who will be corrupt and bereft of ideas, to run our nation aground. 

We should not become the types of men who have lost their manhood and reduced to an obliging shell. 

The evils we support today because of what we stand to benefit will be the manure that will nurture our collective troubles in future.* It will come to us as a curse.

And curses are like young chickens; they always come home to roost. As the chickens come home to roost, all the bad things we do in our examinations in the past will come back to haunt us.

For those honest and professional teachers and Headmasters who resist all temptations to compromise on their professionalism, I urge you to continue to hold unto the ethics of the profession. 

The opposition you meet on your way in connection with these examinations, can be propellant or repellant to your success, depending on how you view them.

Be positive in your thinking and actions. Continue to be steadfast against examination malpractices. Time is like a river. We can not touch the same water twice, because the flow will never pass again. If we miss the opportunity to curb these malpractices now, it will be an opportunity forever lost.