Students barred for WASSCE over lateness asked to write Nov/Dec
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has directed some final-year Senior High School students who reported late to the examination hall and were prevented from writing a WASSCE for School paper to register Nov/Dec and write that missed paper.
The Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi in an interview monitored by Pretertiary.com said the registration of this academic year’s WASSCE for Private also known as November/December or Nov/Dec ends September 30, 2024.
“We have the school examination and the private examination so for those who miss the opportunity of writing that particular paper on the day they will have to probably register and write the WASSCE for Private Candidates,” he said.
Explaining West African Senior School Certificate Examination for Private he said it was previously meant for workers who wanted to better their grade or another but now it is for individuals who want to write the exam privately.
The WAEC spokesman’s directive comes after seven Labone Senior High School students on Monday, August 26, 2024, were prevented from writing the 2024 WASSCE for School paper for reporting late to the examination hall.
Speaking to Citi News, the Headmistress of Labone Senior High School, Rejoice Akua Acorlor, expressed concern over the situation, noting that the students had been thoroughly briefed on the exam’s rules and regulations.
“Today we wrote social studies as one of the courses. We started on time and before today’s paper, we had given the students a briefing. We have explained to them what WAEC expects from us as a school, they should be here on time, they should be here clearly 30 minutes before the start of the paper, they should be seated
So we expected them one hour before the time and we were able to put them to their various seats, and they started the paper. After 1 hour 20 minutes, some students came in and as per the briefing or the information from WAEC, we are not expected to let them, they’ve stayed too long
If it was 20, or 30 minutes, and they had tangible reasons, we would let them in. These were some of the students who wrote their visual art papers and they kept coming late
We have spoken to them, we’ve cautioned them and today they came late with no reason, so it was difficult for us to let them in. As a mother of this school, I am not happy if all our students do not take part in the examination,” she said.
When asked what the Ministry of Education (MoE) would do about the situation, the Deputy Minister of Education, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour said his outfit would investigate the cause of what made the WASSCE candidates late.
“The rules are very clear and therefore I would want to find out the exact incident that happened and look for details of it before I can respond but there are rules to every examination and I will appeal that all stakeholders abide by that rule. So in this particular instance you cited, I will look into it,“ the Reverend Minister told journalists.
The 2024 edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates which commenced with Visual Art Project work on August 5, 2024, will end on Friday, September 20, 2024.
A total of 460,611 candidates representing 212,954 males and 247,657 females from 1,003 Senior High Schools across the country participated in the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School.
The Ghana version of the International examination was held at 1,000 centres across the country. In a statement, WAEC said the candidature figure who wrote the 2024 WASSCE for School is 2.66% higher than the 2023 entry figure of 448,674.