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Volume 2

Africa Education Watch Launches 2020 WASSCE Report

WASSCE students in the examination hall

Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has launched an independent assessment report on the 2020 WASSCE titled “The 2020 WASSCE Report (an Independent Assessment of the conduct of the 2020 WASSCE by WAEC)”. The report highlights the root causes, symptoms, and effects of WAEC’s perennial leakages on Ghana, and provides policy recommendations to improve the assessment system in Ghana.

Twenty-six Key Informants were interviewed, including Headmasters, teachers, students of selected Senior High Schools (SHSs), invigilators, examiners, markers, journalists, former management and board members of WAEC in the preparation of the report. The report reviewed existing literature, reports and independent assessments on the conduct of examinations and events leading to the unprecedented leakages of exams questions and examiners’ contact details during the 2020 WASSCE. Encouraged by the political will of the Minister of Education to reform WAEC in line with the vision of the President of the Republic as indicated in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), the report was commissioned to provide a documented foundation of happenings in the assessment sector over the years to assist government in championing any reforms in the sector.

Presenting the key findings and recommendations of the report, the Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare explained among others the role of WAEC and the standards it seeks to emulate, as well as its conflicting relationship with the ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ghana Education Service (GES). Additionally, he questioned prosecutorial commitments of law enforcement agencies as well as WAEC itself in punishing persons who are/have been caught engaging in various forms of malpractices over the years and in the 2020 WASSCE. Mr. Asare further elaborated on the key happenings that tainted the quality of the 2020 WASSCE as well as what constitutes examination malpractices according to WAEC’s own provisions.

The report cited two categories of irregularities which occurred during the 2020 WASSCE; leakage in examiners’ contact details and widespread leakage in examination questions. The list of examiners' contacts details contained specific names, schools, subject areas, telephone numbers, and email addresses, while leaked examination questions were found circulating on social media hours to the start of the paper. The report also indicated certain malpractices involving invigilators during the WASSCE 2020, including an incident at Kade Senior High Technical School in the Eastern Region where a maths teacher was caught dictating solutions to the Integrated Science questions while invigilating. The delayed release of the full WASSCE results by WAEC was one irregularity that was cited by the report as blemishing the quality of WAEC’s examinations. Affected candidates are sometimes denied their right to enrol in a tertiary institution due to the delays in the release of their results in the year of examination as a result of WAEC’s delays in investigating alleged malpractices leading to the withholding of their results beyond the admission deadlines of tertiary institutions.

On the back of its findings, Africa Education Watch made some eleven recommendations on how to reform the assessment system in Ghana. Key among its recommendations was that the MoE must work with WAEC, the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney-General to expedite action on criminal investigations into reported irregularities during the 2020 WASSCE, and make public such findings and prosecutions where appropriate to deter potential offenders. The report also recommended the urgent need to regulate WAEC, by introducing a Regulator of Assessments who would play a supervisory role over all assessment bodies in the country, while inviting other assessment bodies to come and operate in Ghana to break WAEC’s monopoly in the assessment business thereby creating some healthy competition in the Public Pre-Tertiary Examinations Sector, to improve standards under the proposed Regulator of Assessments.

The independent assessment report further recommended a digitization of the question distribution system, by introducing an internet-based encrypted email system that sends questions 30 minutes ahead of the commencement of each paper, by which time all candidates should be seated for questions to be printed in the open at the Centre and distributed to them. This according to the report, will reduce the human elements in the question delivery system, which has over the years been a primary source of examination questions leakages.

Additionally, the report recommended that WAEC engages external consultants to speed up investigations into alleged malpractices leading to the withholding of results of some students after the initial release of examination results. Engaging external consultants would further ensure that the results of innocent students are released with the entire cohort to prevent them from missing tertiary admissions in the year of examinations. A nationwide anti-examination malpractices campaign was also recommended to conscientize students on the need to disengage in malpractices. This campaign against examination fraud must be embraced by all, with frontline roles played by the moral society, Parent Associations, media, and CSOs.

Speaking at the launch and reiterating how irregularities affect the quality of assessment, Board Chair for Eduwatch, and former Board Member of WAEC, Dr. Samuel Ofori Bekoe, indicated that the rate, variations and magnitude of malpractices which occurred during the 2020 WASSCE was unprecedented which necessitated the report to provide such a vivid account, and proffer recommendations on how to nib these irregularities. He called for all stakeholders to come together to assist Eduwatch and government to bring these recommendations to reality to strengthen Ghana’s assessment system. A former Director-General of GES, Mr. Charles Aheto- Tsegah, commended Eduwatch for bringing to light such pertinent issues, and expressed that the report had initiated a debate on how to improve assessments in the country’s assessment system. On the recommendation to break WAEC’s monopoly by inviting other assessment bodies to compete, he indicated that Ghana needs to take serious considerations when introducing such bodies into the system.

Professor Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, the Vice Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, in her submission, said there should be a debate in the broader context of corruption in schools, because it speaks volumes about our moral values in the society. She added that the leakages are long-standing issues which still stands due to the over politicization of the core of the problem. The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers, Angel Carbonu, taking his turn to speak at the launch, indicated that educationists should re-emphasize the knowledge acquisition ideology to students to disengage the relationship between educational successes and passing of examinations. He believes students are too focused on obtaining a certificate without focusing on understanding what they are taught, while adding that the urge to buy questions on the black market will reduce when students focus on knowledge acquisition in school rather than merely excelling in their final examinations.

The malpractices of the 2020 WASSCE examinations were an accumulation of irregularities that had been overlooked over the years, coupled with the monopoly being enjoyed by WAEC and conflicting relationship between key education sector agencies, resulting from a lack of political will in the past to reform the assessment system. There is the need for total reforms, beginning with the show of political will by the Minister of Education and the involvement of major education sector stakeholders to bring quality to Ghana’s assessment system.

Source: Africa Education Watch

NUGS honors Africa Education Watch

NUGS Executives presenting the Citation of honor to Mr Kofi Asare, Executive Director of Africa Education Watch

Leadership of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) has presented a citation in honor of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) to appreciate the organisation’s impact and dedication towards service to humanity. The Union expressed that Eduwatch had defied all odds to shape lives and nurture the talents of the young generation, and it stood “together with the children whose lives had been impacted directly to say Ayekoo.”

The presentation was made by NUGS president Isaac Jay Hyde together with other executives of the Union. Receiving the citation on behalf of Eduwatch, the Executive Director, Kofi Asare expressed gratitude to the leadership of NUGS for the honor bestowed on the organisation.

NUGS is the largest student organization in Ghana, and the mother union of all Ghanaian students both home and abroad. The Union has the primary aim of protecting and safeguarding the rights and interests of all Ghanaian students.

Source: Africa Education Watch

Eduwatch Fellow Appointed as Advisory Board Member of HundrED

Divine Kpe, Africa Education Watch Fellow

Multi Award Winning Educationist and Africa Education Watch Fellow, Divine Kpe, has been appointed as an Advisory Board Member of HundrED. HundrED is a Finland-based international education organization that identifies impactful and scalable K12 innovations and helps them spread. His role among others will be to identify and recommend education innovations that are changing the way children learn.

Over the years, Divine has initiated and led several programs/projects towards promoting educational quality in Ghana. Notably among them are the Safe School Project, which aims at preventing violence (sexual, psychological, and physical) in Ghanaian schools to make them safer for learning, and the Every Child Along project that sought to promote the right-age enrolment of Ghanaian children into school.

Source: Africa Education Watch

British PM Pledges £430m For Girls Missing Education Amid Aid Row


British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the recent G7 summit pledged £430m to improve education in some of the world's poorest countries - with girls' education a priority. The Prime Minister said it was a source of "international shame" that so many girls in poorer countries were missing out on access to school.”

The Prime Minister has made girls' education a flagship issue of the G7 - and the summit will approve plans to get 40 million more girls into school in countries where girls might either be kept out of school or drop out early. The £430m over five years will be the UK's biggest contribution to the Global Partnership for Education, an international coordinating body which wants to raise $5bn (£3.5bn) at an education summit next month, for projects in 90 countries.

Lis Wallace of the Anti-Poverty Charity, One, said the destructive impact of the pandemic on education in poorer countries had been "staggering" and a "silent emergency". But she said the amount offered so far "falls short" of what is needed - and warned the cut to international aid risked "undermining these efforts". The funding announcement was "a good start" but there still needed to be a reversal of "shameful cuts to overseas aid", said Rose Caldwell, chief executive of Plan International UK.

Mark Sheard, Chief Executive of World Vision UK, said the funding announced was not enough after the "drastic cuts" to the aid budget.

The view from Malawi

Among the beneficiaries of UK aid is Matandani school, near Zomba in Malawi, in southern Africa. Talking via Zoom, the head teacher Givemore Chipanga said pupils might walk 5km or 6km to school each morning - and the younger pupils were in classes of more than 180 children each.

The school which has been proud of its efforts to get solar power and piped water, has been trying to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Mr Chipanga said he was worried that the disruption would push learners permanently out of education - such as girls going into early marriages.

The rural school is part of the Unlocking Talent Educational Technology project, supported by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), which uses tablet computers to help teachers track the progress of pupils in such large classes.

The project, backed by the University of Nottingham and the charity onebillion, has particularly helped girls, said the head teacher. Mr Chipanga said supporting girls' education was vital for countries such as Malawi - with benefits to health and the economy.

Source: bbc.com

Kenya: Ministry of Education to Upgrade Select Schools for Junior High

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha
(Credit: Tonny Omondi,  Nation Media Group)

The Ministry of Education is working to upgrade infrastructure in some primary schools to host Junior Secondary School (JSS) classes under the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Primary schools with established infrastructure that can host a JSS wing will be upgraded. Those that are under-enrolled and in close proximity will be merged and the infrastructure of one of them improved. This means that some schools will have both Primary and Junior Secondary hosted in the same compound. JSS will comprise Grades 7, 8 and 9.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has revealed that ministry officials are working on the number of primary schools to be upgraded to ensure a smooth transition. He said the ministry is using geographic information system (GIS) technology to assess the capacity of schools.

Government expects a 27 per cent rise in the secondary school population in January 2023 (from 4,381,701 to 6,029,168) when there will be a double intake as the pioneer CBC class joins secondary school alongside the second-last 8-4-4 class.

"The new principal secretary for the implementation of curriculum, Fatuma Chege, spent about two weeks in Machakos with her team to work on the numbers and will soon give us the exact number of primary schools that will be upgraded," Prof Magoha said.

Construction of extra classes

The proposal to upgrade and merge some schools was made in a CBC Implementation Taskforce Report that Prof Chege chaired before she was appointed PS. The report further recommended the development of "a framework to facilitate sharing and management of infrastructure among primary and secondary schools that will be established in the same compound."

In the proposal, the capacity of day schools will also be expanded. This is meant to address parents' concerns over psychosocial maturity challenges expected as secondary school age drops from an average of 14 years to 12 years. Speaking in Kisumu, Prof Magoha noted that the Sh4.2 billion given for infrastructure development to primary and secondary schools in the 2021/22 financial year will ensure 100 per cent transition for the pioneer class, which completes its primary school cycle next year.

Of the funds allocated this year, Prof Magoha stated that Sh900 million has been set aside for the construction of extra classes in the selected primary schools and Sh1 billion to build two classrooms in some secondary schools.

"The GIS indicates that some secondary schools have some idle classrooms and we are going to establish the exact gap before constructing the classes," he said.

Source: Victor Raballa/ Daily Nation

Nigeria: Insecurity - Ibadan Polytechnic Suspends Public Activities Indefinitely

The institution management said its decision is part of efforts to monitor the security temperature within the institution and its environment

The management of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, has ordered the indefinite suspension of both academic and non-academic activities on the campus. The institution’s management said its decision is part of efforts to monitor the security temperature within the institution and its environment.

A statement issued by the institution and read by its spokesman, Adewole Soladoye, however, gave exemption to the ongoing examination at the school. The statement, which was signed by the institution's registrar, Modupe Fawale, said "all public activities including conferences, seminars and workshops in the institution and its environment remain suspended until further notice.""The only activity permitted to take place is the ongoing second semester examinations," it added.

Reasons for action

The management said in the statement that "the decision is part of efforts to monitor the security temperature within the Institution and its environment," adding that it is also "part of efforts to curtail and monitor the continued Covid-19 precautions.""By this, all Deans of Faculties, Directors, Heads of Departments, religious bodies, Students' Union, students' Representative Council, all staff and members of the public are to kindly abide by this directive which takes effect from Sunday, 27th of June, 2021," it concluded.

Though the school management was vague in its reasons for the action, the decision may not be unconnected with the rampaging violence in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. There has been consistent reports of raging violence purportedly spearheaded by some notorious transporters in the state, which has claimed more than five lives.

Source: Adejumo Kabir/Premium Times

Rwanda: Covid-19 - Rwanda Closes Schools, Imposes Partial Lockdown

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga delivers an update on the basic education sector's response to the impact of Covid-19 on schooling.
(Photo by: Siyabulela Duda, GCIS)

Rwanda has imposed a partial lockdown to curb the surging cases of Covid-19. A statement released by the Prime Minister's office ordered the closure of schools and universities and prohibits church services, meetings and all social gatherings, effective July 1. The 7pm-4am curfew was revised and the curfew will now run from 6pm to 4am.

Movements between Kigali and other districts have been banned except for essential services, while business have been asked to close by 5pm. Restaurants will only offer takeaway services. Kigali City and districts of Burera, Kamonyi, Gicumbi, Rwamagana, Rubavu, Nyagatare, Rutsiro and Musanze that have recorded more cases of infections will follow stricter guidelines than the rest of the country. Most of the above districts neighbour the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda that are experiencing a spike in infections.

The new guidelines come just a week after the cabinet meeting had tightened guidelines. "Given the surge in Covid-19 cases, and the emergence of new variants globally, the government has decided to take additional measures to control the further spread of the virus," the statement read in part.

Rwanda has been experiencing a severe surge in Covid-19 infections since early May where daily records and deaths increased over four times. The Ministry of Health said that more young people are getting infected and dying from the virus, and more patients are symptomatic. The spike is attributed to complacency in adhering to preventive measures by the public and the wave of infections in neighbouring Uganda and DR Congo.

"We need the public to collaborate and adhere to these measures to see results. These measures were tightened to sustain what we have achieved so far. The previous measures have worked and we need to collaborate on this as well," Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said.

Rwanda had recorded over 757 new infections and its positivity rate stands at 11 percent. So far, Rwanda has vaccinated 391,739 people. It targets to vaccinate 60 percent of its 12 million population by July 2022.

Source: Ange Iliza/ The East African

EduNews!

Emerging Education Issues in Ghana and across Africa

Welcome to the 2nd edition of our EduNews Publication.

EduNews is a newsletter which shares activities of Africa Education Watch - as well as emerging education issues, researches and reports in Ghana and across the African Continent.