The President of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Philipa Larsen has said the call to cancel the leaked papers of the ongoing West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is not enough to address the yearly examination papers leakages at the Senior High School level.
Mrs. Larsen who bemoaned the cost implications of the cancellation on the state as well as the burden on students and teachers said the West African Examination Council (WAEC) had in the past cancelled leaked examination papers but the issue still persists.
According to her, the issue of examination leakage must be addressed in a holistic manner so as to avert its annual occurrence. She asserted that the integrity of the certificate obtained through the examination is at stake if the continual leakage of examination question papers is not addressed.
She asserted that the failure on the part of the examining body to thoroughly investigate the past incidence of examination leakages and punish persons found culpable is the reason for the annual occurrence of leakages of examination question papers.
She is therefore calling for an independent committee to be set up to thoroughly investigate the matter and punish persons found culpable in order to permanently curb the incidence of examination leakages.
“Over the years we have had issues where examination had leaked and all we had done was just to cancel the examination papers. It is not just enough to say you are cancelling the examination papers. There should be a thorough investigation into all that and get to the root cause of the issue. It is something that we have to kill. People who are found culpable would have to be punished,” she stated in an interview on Joy news TV.
Her comments come on the back of calls by the minority in parliament for the leaked examination papers to be cancelled. The minority is also demanding for an investigation into the sources of publications of the details of examiners and the leakage of examination papers while charging WAEC to ensure the safety of the remaining papers.
There have been concerns over the widespread leakages of examination papers in the ongoing WASSCE examination and recent leakage of contact details of examiners. The African Education Watch which raised concerns about the leakages has petitioned parliament to investigate the matter. It also calling for the examiners whose names are leaked to be excluded from the examination process stating that their independence could be compromised.
WAEC has since apologized to the said examiners while rejecting any blame for the leakage of examination papers.
