Mahama’s criticism of the WASSCE results lacks merit – Nana Addo

His Excellency Akufo-Addo after former President John Dramani Mahama downgraded the excellent 2023 WASSCE results to malpractice says the National Democratic Congress flagbearer’s criticism of the examination results lacks merit.

Challenging the International examination results, Mahama said some invigilators tasked to overseer the examination were lax, allowing teachers to assist students in answering questions hence the high numbers of students passing.

“You certify these children saying they are of this standard either the BECE or SSCE, and that child will use that certificate, go abroad to a school, and they will find out that your qualification is not up to the standard you say it is,” he said.

John Mahama’s comment comes after the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum described the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School results as the best since the 2015 academic year.

But addressing the 187th speech and prize-giving day at Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, President Akufo-Addo expressed regret that political dynamics led some, including Mahama, to question the results’ integrity without any foundation.

President Nana Akufo-Addo emphasized the quality of education under the free Senior High School (Free SHS) program, citing the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results as evidence.

His Excellency commended the “Akufo-Addo graduates,” noting that from 2020 to 2023, more than 50% of candidates obtained A1 to C6 in all core subjects, indicating a significant improvement in education quality.

It is a pity though that the sad nature of aspects of contemporary Ghanaian politics drove some otherwise allegedly responsible people including your former President and current NDC Presidential candidate to question the integrity of the results happily without any foundation and to attribute these results to cheating.

Students of Wesley Girls High School, do you cheat in examinations? This loud no will send a strong message to those who expressed these unfortunate, misguided sentiments.”

The WASSCE results of the students I proudly call the Akufo-Addo graduates have shown that the quality of education has not deteriorated but on the contrary, it has improved significantly.

The results of the Akufo-Addo graduates in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 are the only years in the past decade that show that more than 50% of the candidates obtained A1 to C6 in all core subjects.”