MoE urges ‘WASSCE’ students to aim US educational opportunities
Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has called on Ghanaian students to explore educational opportunities in the United States of America (USA), sayin,g “It is one of the greatest nations to have higher education.”
Speaking at the Education USA College Fair in Accra, organized by the U.S. Embassy in Ghana, the Education Minister said USA universities would challenge students, broaden their knowledge, and make them critical thinkers.
Citing the benefits of US educational opportunities, the Minister in Charge of Education urged the students to take advantage of scholarship opportunities and apply to as many foundations that offer scholarships as possible.
“I hope that they will come back to Ghana after their education to contribute their quota to the transformation of the country. American graduates return to their country, and they do some good things for Ghana and humanity,” he said.
The Fair featured over 50 U.S. colleges and universities and offered opportunities for Ghanaians to study in the United States. It also brought together Senior High Schools in Accra to explore educational opportunities in the USA.
In a related development, four international students from Ghana have been arrested in the United States of America (USA) for allegedly forging high school transcripts to gain admission to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
The Ghanaian students, namely Otis Opoku, Evans Oppong, Cyrilstan Nomobon Sowah-Nai, and Henry Dabuo, are currently being held in Northampton County Jail on charges of forgery and theft of services.
Their arrest comes after Lehigh University Police Department (LUPD) Detective Lieutenant David Kokinda filed criminal complaints against three of the students on September 6, with a complaint against Evans Oppong still being processed.
They were also investigated after Lehigh’s Vice Provost of Admissions and Financial Aid, Dan Warner, raised concerns about the legitimacy of a transcript submitted by Jude Dabuo, Henry Dabuo’s older brother, who had been admitted to the university for the upcoming semester.
Lehigh’s Admissions Office, following unusual markings, formatting, and spelling errors on the document, rescinded Jude Dabuo’s admission and investigated his younger brother’s credentials.
The student newspaper of the private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, reports that further inquiries revealed similar discrepancies in the applications of the other three Ghanaian students.
According to court documents, Opoku, a student since 2022, received financial aid totaling $212,933, while Sowah-Nai and Dabuo, who both started in 2023, were awarded financial aid worth $127,213 and $129,244, respectively.
The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates, which commenced on Tuesday, 5th August 2025, with the Visual Art Project work and continued with the written papers on Monday, 18th August 2025, ended on Friday, 19th September 2025.
A total of 461,640 final-year Senior High School (SHS) students, made up of 207,381 males and 254,259 females drawn from 1,021 second-cycle schools, participated in the WASSCE for School.
This figure represents a 0.22% increase over the 2024 entry figure of 460,611. The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) was taken at 703 centres across the country.
In all, 65 subjects were taken by candidates, but each candidate took an average of eight subjects.
