Free pasco for final-year SHS students must be scraped – lecturer

Corporate Governance Lecturer at Central University, Dr Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, has called for the past questions (Pasco) booklet given to final-year students in the country to study and pass their examination to be abolished.

“I have suggested that the free past questions (Pasco) given to students to study and pass examinations is not a good thing and should be abolished. Education is not all about examination.

The money invested in procuring the past questions should rather be given to teachers as incentives in order for them to work assiduously in grooming the students for a brighter future,” the university lecturer said in an interview.

In a panel discussion on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ morning show monitored by Pretertiary.com, he further opined that the issuance of free tablets for students should be monitored and properly regulated in order to serve the purpose for which they were given to the students.

“The free tablets given to students should be well-regulated so that the students do not spend the whole time downloading and playing games at the expense of their studies. That will defeat the purpose for which the tablets were given,” he said.

Meanwhile, the central government, as part of an effort to cut the photocopying cost of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) past question booklet, has said it will upload the past questions online.

The upload of the WASSCE past questions online for Senior High School (SHS) students comes after the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, told Parliament that GH¢68.5 million was spent on photocopying the booklet.

“To help prepare the final year Senior High School students for the 2021 WASSCE, the Ministry has procured 446,954 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) questions from Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit price of GH¢78.00. The procurement will be funded from the Free Senior High School Account.

Mr Speaker, in 2020, the government, through its efforts to help students amidst COVID-19 to prepare for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), procured 568,755 past questions for students to try their hands on before sitting for the actual exams.”

The Ministry of Education (MoE) contracted Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery to supply 568,755 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) past questions at a contract price of GHS 33,641,043.75.

The procurement of these questions was funded through the Free Senior High School Account, and the results of the 2020 WASSCE were tremendous compared to previous years’ WASSCE performance

Mr Speaker, the procurement process for the supply of published textbooks to Basic Schools is currently ongoing. The Ministry placed an advert in the Ghanaian Times on 1st June 2020, where various publishers approved by NaCCA submitted their books and relevant documents to be taken through a Pre-Qualification procurement process,” he said.

But, the Minority in Parliament says the decision of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to procure four hundred thousand (400,000) sets of questions and answer booklets from WAEC will compromise the integrity of the not-for-profit-making organization.

“We are talking about a government agency going to WAEC to buy 400,000 questions to supply to students who are beneficiaries of our Free SHS policy as an intervention. And which institution is supposed to set the question, and if the government, by virtue of its might can afford to procure 400,000 question,s the likelihood that this is going to affect the conduct as far as the exam is concerned cannot be dismissed. Because the government is not doing this for no reason, the intent is to ensure that as many students as possible will pass,” he stated.