WAEC bars 7 Labone SHS students from WASSCE hall over lateness

On the advice of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), seven Labone SHS students on Monday, August 26, 202,4 were barred from participating in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

The management of the Accra-based Senior High School speaking to the media said the 7 candidates were barred because Monday was the second time the students had reported late for the ongoing International examination.

This information was revealed during a tour by the Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, to the school as part of efforts to monitor the progress of the examination and extend his best wishes to the candidates.

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 students 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 are participating in the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School.

Ongoing at 1,000 centres across the country, the management of the not-for-profit-making organization in a statement sighted by Pretertiary.com said the figure is 2.66% higher than the 2023 entry figure of 448,674.