Educational Rights For All

SEARCHING FOR PANACEA FOR EXAM MALPRACTICE IN GHANA
–THE NEED TO LOOK BEYOND WAEC
By
Haruna Zagoon-Sayeed

There is no doubt that examination malpractice including leakage defiles the sanctity and integrity of our examinations and affects the quality of professionals we are churning out from our institutions. Indeed, the leakage of examinations creates profound distress among pupils, students, parents, policy-makers and even WAEC officials. This irregularity in examination administration erodes the success of any educational system; and it is the greatest corruption and injustice that can ever befall any educational system and for that matter a country. One can therefore understand why the entire nation get upset when there is examination leakage. It is also understandable and legitimate that WAEC is blamed for examination malpractices especially when it is a leakage problem; even though I think that sometimes this blame is over-stretched. The call for WAEC to sit-up is a legitimate and reasonable one. The foremost examining body in West Africa and one of the best in Africa should be able tighten the security of its examination as well as constantly reviewing its exam protocols in order to preempt malpractices that emanate from lack of due diligence.

Undoubtedly, the fight against exam malpractice is a huge one that goes beyond WAEC. Whiles WAEC ought to be held responsible for any immediate exam leakage, we must be also cast our search for solution to this perennial problem beyond WAEC and pitch our campaign against the misdirection of our moral compass as Ghanaians, which is the foremost culprit. The pressure and inducement for exam malpractice come from society and at times from high echelon of our people including chiefs and politicians who want the wards of their subjects or schools in their areas of jurisdiction get good grades at all cost. There are retired senior civil and public servants who have opened private schools and prey on live question papers for their schools. This ill agenda is vigorously pursued with the objectives of boosting the academic results of their schools in order to attract more pupils and students for profit purposes.

In the aftermath of the recent exam leakages particularly that of the 2015 Basic Education Certificate Examination and the 2016 WASSCE leakage (fore-knowledge as explained by WAEC), many have called for the removal of human intervention in exam administration. This means that most of the exams tools and procedures used by WAEC from pre-exams to post-exams until results are released must be computer-driven. This idea is fine but not totally practicable. It is possible to reduce human intervention in exam administration to some extent but not wholly. The setting of questions, printing of question papers, distribution of questions papers to schools on exam days, supervising the writing of the exam, and marking of worked scripts will all involve one human intervention or the other; and each stage has the equal potential for leakage. What is critical in all this is the integrity of the people involved in the examination administration chain. It is worth noting that in its examination administration, WAEC recruits non-WAEC personnel to help discharge its mandate including officials from the Ghana Education Service (GES), headmasters, teachers and officers from the Ghana Police Service. In most cases, the integrity of these professionals is taken for granted. And yet much exam malpractice has been perpetrated with the direct connivance of corrupt police officials or invigilators who are predominantly teachers in our public schools.

It is critical that the campaign against the canker is embraced by all and targeted at moral re-armament of the Ghanaian. Exam malpractice, be it leakage, fore-knowledge, collusion, or impersonation is a kind of corruption that has bedeviled the system for far too long. Until Ghanaians whether as a WAEC staff, a supervisor (headmaster), an invigilator, a police officer, a politician, a chief, or a parent uphold high moral standards, the issue of exam malpractice cannot be a thing of the past.

In this regard, our religious leaders, chiefs and politicians must lead the campaign by consciously engaging in public education on the destructive nature of exam malpractices as a whole. Moreover, I will encourage WAEC to continue with the frequent review of procedures to tighten the bolts holding the integrity of our exams. Decentralizing WAEC operations including the opening of district offices has become inevitable. The call for an alternative examining body in Ghana is not the solution to the problem at hand. We have already seen how a certificate from the Nigeria’s National Examinations Council (NECO), an alternative examining body in Nigeria is still struggling for international recognition. Stakeholders including civil society groups must all work together to support WAEC to stem the leakage wave with the collective objective of sustaining the integrity of our examinations and for that matter our pre-tertiary certificates.

*The writer is the Executive Director of the Baraka Policy Institute (BPI), a Think Tank on Social Justice and Development with special focus on education and health. Email: h.zagoon-sayeed@barakapolicy.org/info@barakapolicy.org.

Published in The Finder newspaper on Wednesday, April 13, 2016