The West African Examinations Council wishes to alert members of the public about the activities of some persons who fraudulently make calls or send messages introducing themselves as staff of WAEC and who claim that

1. The persons being contacted have challenges with the registration they made for a particular WAEC examination
2. They work in the WAEC Strong Room and can upgrade results.

 

These persons often request for payments to be made via mobile money transfers to the phone numbers they provide.

 

The Council wishes to caution members of the public to disregard such phone calls as they are from scammers.

 

WAEC wishes to assure members of the public that its databases are secured and that any forgery of information or results can be detected by the confirmation/verification system. Institutions and organisations are advised to confirm or verify results presented to them directly from the Council or access the confirmation/verification service online at www.waecgh.org.

 

Members of the public are advised to report the activities of these fraudsters to the police, the nearest WAEC Office or call 054 015  7979.

The 26^th Annual Endowment Fund Lecture has been held as part of activities for the 69^th Annual Council Meeting hosted by the Ghana National Office. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Kafui Etsey, Lecturer, University of Cape Coast.

Speaking on the topic, “Treading On Slippery Ground: Calling Education To Account”, Prof. Etsey examined the various educational reforms that had taken place in Ghana. These include the Accelerated Development Plan in 1951, Kwapong Educational Review Committee Reforms in 1966, Dzobo Educational Review Committee Reforms in 1973 and the Evans-Anfom Educational Review Committee Reforms in 1987. He noted that the Anamuah-Mensah Educational Review Committee Reforms in 2002 gave birth to the Free Senior High School policy in September, 2017.

According to Prof. Etsey, although the reforms were expected to make teaching and learning efficient and effective in schools, expand access to education in Ghana as well as meet the human resource needs of the country, evidence shows that the purposes have only been partially achieved. Prof. Etsey noted that there have been structural gains in the educational system in the form of provision of school buildings, teaching and learning materials and the expansion of access to education. He also touched on the decentralization of budgetary support as well as an appreciable increase in school enrolment through the Free S.H.S. policy as some of the gains made.

Touching on the slippery spots of the educational reforms, Prof. Etsey indicated that since independence, the mix between politics and education has partly led to challenges in effective classroom teaching and learning. He cited the abandonment of projects from successive governments and introduction of new policies that undermine the previous ones as examples.  To mitigate the slippery spots in educational reforms, Prof. Etsey was of the view that “politics should stop at the school house door and not enter the classroom”. He also noted that “educational reforms should be built on political commitment not interference”. He further added that research, wide stakeholder consultations and experiences from other countries will help achieve the desired gains in the educational sector.

The lecture which was virtual was delivered via the Zoom Webinar platform and streamed live on Facebook.

The Excellence and Distinction Awards were instituted by the WAEC Endowment Fund. One of the objects of the Fund is the provision of prizes for awards to candidates who distinguish themselves in the Council’s national and international examinations. The Ceremony has been specially designed to publicly acknowledge the exceptional performance of candidates in the WASSCE for School Candidates.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Head of National Office, Mrs. Wendy E. Addy-Lamptey noted that the awards over the years have always confirmed the high reliability of the Council’s examinations as all the award winners have been found to have track records of excellent performance in their schools.

She further indicated that the activities of rogue website operators and social media scammers whose primary aim is to make money at the expense of the credibility of WAEC examinations continue to pose as one of the Council’s major challenges. She added that the Council was working closely with the Police, National Investigative Bureau (NIB), National Security and other security agencies to address the situation.  She called on the awardees to be worthy ambassadors in the fight against the canker of examination malpractice.

The HNO thereafter assured all stakeholders that the Council will continue to put in place measures to ensure that the credibility of its examinations is not undermined.

Addressing awardees and participants at the ceremony, the Hon. Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Gifty Twum Ampofo congratulated the awardees for their outstanding performance and assured stakeholders of the Government’s commitment to putting in place a number of interventions to ensure that students are well-rounded, innovative and positive agents of change. She further assured the Council of the Ministry’s support to exploring diverse ways of curbing examination malpractice in order to ensure that educational standards are maintained, thereby promoting sustainable human resource development in the country.

A Ghanaian candidate, Kwame Brako Asante from the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School (PRESEC), Legon wins the second prize at the International Excellence Awards for the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2021 with a total t-score of 600.9987. A total number of 2,214,979 candidates from the five (5) member countries of WAEC sat for the examination.

The award was presented to him in Accra by the Vice Chairman of Council (Director-General, Ghana Education Service), Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa during the Opening Ceremony (virtual) of the 70^th Annual Council Meeting.

The 1^st and 3^rd prizes went to Ms. Nweze, Isabella Chinasa from the Lagoon School, Lekki, Lagos with a total t-Score of 606.8766 and Mr. Edeani Izuchukwu Godswill from Airforce Comprehensive School, Agbani, Enugu State with a t-score of 598.1588 respectively.

The International Excellence Awards were instituted by the Board of Trustees of the WAEC Endowment Fund in 1984 to honour candidates with outstanding performance in the Council’s Senior High School Certificate Examination.

On the strength of the basic criterion of eight (8) Grade A1s, one hundred and seventy-nine (179) of the 442,807 candidates who sat the examination in Ghana and ninety-six (96) of the 1,560,239 candidates who sat the examination in Nigeria, making a total of two hundred and seventy-five (275), were considered eligible for the awards.

Kwame Brako Asante is currently at the Ashesi University College studying Computer Science. For his prize, he received a cheque of seven thousand five hundred Ghana cedis (GHS7,500).