EduWatch reveals amount to be spent on 2024 WASSCE for School
This academic year, the central government is spending about GH₵170 million on 2024 WASSCE for School registration, including written, oral and practical papers under Free Senior High School, Africa Education Watch has disclosed.
The Director of EduWatch, Mr Kofi Asare in a social media post sighted by Thisterm.com however said despite the huge budget for the 2024 edition of the WASSCE, some heads of schools are demanding up to GH₵700 for the examination.
The education think tank’s Executive Director also said some Senior High Schools are charging prospective students to sit for the Internationa examination to be administered by the West African Examinations Council graduation fee.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has said all school examinations conducted by WAEC for final-year students in public Junior and Senior High Schools under the Free SHS policy are covered by the government.
In a discussion with an Accra-based radio, he said the government as part of an effort to ensure quality education has absorbed BECE and WASSCE fees used to be paid by final-year students before they sit for the examination.
“The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) are free, BECE is free, WASSCE is also free,” the Minister in Charge of Education said on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem show.
In a related development, the Ghana Education Service (GES) after the global coronavirus pandemic disrupted the country’s academic calendar has said 2024 WASSCE for School is likely to be administered in the usual May/June.
An official of the Service in an interview monitored by Thisterm.com said the Ministry of Education is working closely with relevant stakeholders for the country to switch from conducting WASSCE in August/September to May/June.
The 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination date comes after the West African Examinations Council amid Ghana’s academic calendar issues in 2022 and 2023 WASSCE for School separately for Ghanaian students
Unlike Ghana, the Head of National Office – WAEC, Addy-Lamptey in an interview with the Daily Graphic said the member countries Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia sat for their 2022 and 2023 WASSCE in June.
“The four countries have had their academic calendars streamlined to enable them to write the examination in May/June, as Ghana sticks to the ‘new normal’ calendar occasioned by the COVID pandemic in 2020,” she told Graphic.