Gone are the days Ghana stood on top of the Educational hierarchy on the continent. Back then, we could boast as one the finest in Africa and an extent on the global stage. Our students were readily admitted into foreigner universities and drew in a list of other countries who saw us beyond our natural resources. It’s unfortunate that those days are long gone and our educational system and structures in the worst shape possible. We’ve lost sight of the future.
When news broke of BASIC EDUCATION CERTIFICATE EXAMS (B.E.C.E) being cancelled due to leaks at the West African Examinations Council (W.A.E.C) it was quite amusing and shocking. Amusing to know that they W.A.E.C was at it again. Not able to keep their papers under lock and key as promised and shocking in the sense that in the day of social media becoming second nature, they thought so little of WhatsApp and Facebook. That issue in the backseat, let’s take a closer look at the credibility and authenticity of the system that year-in and year out churns out graduates.
Let’s talk about the quality of our graduates on a yearly basis and juxtapose it to innovation, originality, creativity and productivity. It is important to note that the growth and development of any country rest solely on her human resource. The finest of natural resources, from crude oil to Gold, Diamond etc., can only earn you a place among the highest producers without a place at the table of the high earners and world leaders. Without a place for quality human resources to properly manage these natural resources, you won’t be able to develop at a fast and sustainable rate.
Sadly, we’ve allowed CORRUPTION to creep into every fabric of society and turned our dear future into a chaskele contest where children get into senior high schools and universities based on nothing. Considering these students don’t have the necessary requirement, and couldn’t meet the standards are still able to find their way by using the loopholes in our system instead of them to study hard and pass with flying colors.
Today, most of our students aren’t well motivated and determined to study hard and focus on their books, because they’ve been made to believe that there is another alternative to passing exams aside sitting down to study. Students today desperately look for ‘’apor” instead of studying. They opt for distractions than study and play from social media to movies, sex, relationships and others.
Over the years, WAEC has had to cancel the papers because of incidents of the papers getting leaked. It would be prudent to note that canceling the papers isn’t a solution to the deteriorating situation. The West African Examinations Council’s credibility has been brought to question, situations of papers getting leaked even to the extent of marking schemes circulating on social media hours before the exams.
Clearly the examination’s governing body isn’t showing positive signs that they have control of the situation, The Education Ministry, as well as the Ghana Education Service hadn’t also shown initiative. The leakage of the exam questions is defined from within, if proper measures are put in place, the situation won’t repeat itself every year and get worse, the authenticity of our exams is virtually a case of selling candy to a kid, with teachers and invigilators who are supposed to monitor and ensure that stated rules and regulations during exams are adhered to, or rather taking money from students in order to allow them to copy and cheat.
If we really want to produce good and quality graduates that would help build our nation, then we need to take a closer look at our educational system, and review it thoroughly, refrain from playing politics with it, and rather take major decisions by consulting major and key stakeholders like educational experts and others. Make sure that the rules and regulations are strictly adhered to. But the first point of action is checking out the CORRUPTION box before we kiss our educational system and the economy as a whole goodbye.
