Concern Teachers draft open letter to Dr Nkansah and the New Education Minister
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE DIRECTOR GENERAL, GHANA EDUCATION SERVICE AND HON. HARUNA IDDRISU (MP FOR TAMALE SOUTH) – MINISTER DESIGNATE, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION. 22th January, 2025
Dear Director and Hon. Minister of Education Designate,
RESTORE HOPE AND DIGNITY IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SECTOR
I am writing this on the grounds that H.E President John Dramani Mahama has opened the gate for people to criticize the systems where necessary without any vilification. If this letter was written during the immediate past administration, I will be invited to either appear before a disciplinary committee in my municipality or Region, but thanks to President John Dramani Mahama for opening the gate for constructive criticisms.
The bitter truth on the grounds is that, during the BECE, most if not all Headmasters are charged to do anything possible within their means to ensure that the results are good to paint the government white.
Therefore, to ensure that, most Headmasters end up also tasking their staff to take monies from the Candidates which will be used to bribe invigilators so that the masters will take copies of the exams question papers, go and answer the questions and run photocopies of the answers and distribute them to the Candidates to copy.
The students proceed to the Senior High level with these fake grades but lack basic knowledge in the subjects they scored high grades. The rot does not end here, but it is even more magnified at the SHS level.
At the SHS level, Headmasters are made to sign Performance Contract. Some people have nicknamed it as “Exam Malpractice Contact”.
In that Contract, majority if not all Headmasters are usually threatened that, if their Students fail the WASSCE Exams or score poor grades, they will be removed from their positions as Headmasters.
Therefore, to protect their positions, Headmasters have created “Strong Rooms “ either in their schools or just outside the school which is managed by selected staff whose duty it is to coordinate for masters of different subjects to come onboard and answer the questions which will be photocopied and distributed to the students to pass.
The students are made to pay monies ranging from three thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢ 3,000.00 to ten thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 10,000.00) depending on the location of the school and the level of assistance to be given to students.
This practice has made most of the headmasters to illegally admit already completed students as re-sitters who have completed in other schools but couldn’t pass all the subjects well, to register and re-write the exams as if they started from the beginning. Continues Assessment Marks are conjured to qualify those Candidates to write the exams.
Therefore, the time for the registration of candidates is termed as the cocoa season for most Headmasters because of the re-sitters.
In most cases, at the SHS level, masters who are not comfortable in involving themselves in the Exam Malpractice are usually chastised by their Headmasters and attacked by students for not helping them to pass their exams. Sadly, this incident is trickling down to the JHS level as well. These students at the SHS stage, also proceed to the tertiary level with these fake grades but lack basic knowledge in their examined subject areas.
Others too use these fake grades to be recruited into our security sector who end up proven to be very dangerous in the Sector.
I am appealing to you, for you to use your known principles, to put measures in place to ensure that, the grades obtained by students will be a true reflection of their knowledge.
At first, this exams malpractice canker started in the middle zone to the Southern sector of the country but has now spread throughout all aspects of the country.
All schools in the Northern sector were not involved in this act, until GES started ranking schools according to the students’ passes. This has made some schools which were previously not involved in it to now take part or else it will be taken that, masters in those schools don’t teach.
The fact remains that, despite this act, some schools do not ascribe to the malpractice.
The consequences of this exam’s malpractice are that, people hold certificates with better grades but lack basic knowledge in the very subject areas they scored the good grades. This reflects when those people go to the tertiary, or when they find themselves recruited especially in our security sector.
The tertiary level too, is not left out in the malpractices. Those who can pay higher, and ladies who can open their legs wider get better grades and higher class to graduate whiles those who cannot afford to pay or ladies not willing to open their legs but are intelligent end up getting lower grades/classes during graduation.
It should be noted that, this occurrence at the tertiary level is only but an effect of what is happening at the Basic and Secondary levels of our education. I strongly believe once cured at the Basic and Secondary levels, the ripple effect will be felt at the tertiary sector.
I am strongly inclined to believe that the canker has gone beyond the control of District, Municipal and Regional Directors and require the urgent and swift action from the proverbial ‘’above’’.
The canker has the tendency to decimate Ghana if not curbed in time with the urgency it needs. This Nation decimating nuclear arsenal we are jointly creating will very soon consume all of us. Mother Ghana is crying on you to put your ‘’feet on the ground’’ to redeem our globally respected educational certificates.
In simple terms, put measures in place to stop all kinds of cheating/malpractices in all examinations at all levels in the educational sector.
As H. E. President John Dramani Mahama is to reset the country, kindly use that opportunity to reset the educational sector to redeem our long-earned reputation in the educational sector.
Your government should not be looking for praises from people who are seeking for fake grades but rather raising the quality image of our academic certificates. Your positive response is highly anticipated in this regard.
Yours faithfully,
Signed
Elikey Agbessi
Concerned and Worried Teacher, Okatakyie Agyemang
Kodom M/A Basic School, Nkoranza South Municipal.
Bono East Region.
0504263310 / 0547418430.
