The Ghana Education Service has procured 400,000 sets of questions and answer booklets from the West African Examination Council (WAEC), for distribution to the first batch of beneficiaries of the Free Senior High School Policy.
According to the Head of Public Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the procurement of the past questions was needful since it will guide the students in their preparations and help them excel in their upcoming exams in April, 2020.
“It is geared towards improving the kind of education that we have and the learning outcomes that we have been receiving from WAEC over the years. It is the commitment or it is the anticipation of government that we are going to have our first set of free senior high school education students which we enrolled in 2017 who are going to write their WASSCE in 2020. And we are hoping that we should be able to support them so that they will come out with flying colours,” he said in an interview on Accra-based radio station, Citi FM.
“So, what we have been able to procure for them, that is the 400,000 sets of pass questions that we have are going to be given to all Senior High School students is supposed to help them, to guide them as to whatever they are going to learn so that they will pass their examination and come out with flying colours,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu Kotoe, is questioning the rationale behind the move and the budgetary provision made, for the past examination questions procured for Senior High Students preparing to sit the West Africa Senior School Examination (WASSCE).
He says that the move is improper.
“In the first place what is the budgetary allocation for it because as far as I know, in 2019 there was nothing like that in the budget of the Ghana Education Service or Ministry of Education to procure such learning materials for students in senior high schools,” he stated.
“This is been done because government failed to supply the needed textbooks to senior high schools. It is not morally good for government to do that. Yours is to provide the learning and teaching materials for teachers to teach and prepare the students for examination. Are they preparing them only for examination or for life?” he added.
The Ghana Education Service Director-General, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwah on Monday,25th November 2019 disclosed the procurement of 400 thousand sets of past questions and answer booklets for the first batch of the free SHS policy sitting the exams next April.