Govt owes WAEC ¢224 for 2024 Ghana-version WASSCE for School

The central government owes the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) a total amount amount of GH¢224 million, frustrating plans towards the conduct of the 2024 Ghana-version WASSCE for School, the Minority in Parliament has disclosed.

“Government still owes WAEC, exams will start in August, [but] government has not released any money to WAEC, they owe them a total of GH¢224 million, so WAEC is unable to talk again, we shouldn’t be going on that tangent,” it said.

A spokesman for WAEC earlier told Daily Graphic that his outfit had received just about GH¢2.3 million out of the amount required to successfully conduct the Basic Education Certificate Examination and West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

He insisted that WAEC would require not less than 50 per cent of the total amount to enable it to conduct the examination and a further release of more funds to enable it to process and release the examination results.

The Head of Public Affairs for the not-for-money-making organization (WAEC), John Kapi, expressed fears that the examination might not be conducted as scheduled if the funds were not made available in time.

“A number of suppliers out of goodwill have supplied materials such as bond paper for printing of codes, consumables for the printing machines, answer booklets, pencils and other examination stationery on credit.

As a result of our indebtedness, they are unwilling to supply any further materials for the next examination, which is the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates 2024,” the WAEC official disclosed.

Commenting on the impact of the late release of funds, the spokesperson said the current financial state of the institution affects every aspect of the conduct of the national (BECE) and International examinations (WASSCE).

In a related development, Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) says the government is spending about GH₵170 million on 2024 WASSCE for School registration, including written, oral and practical papers under Free Senior High School.

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.