Securing 'pasco' for SHS not a misplaced priority — GES

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has defended the procurement of past questions for final year students of public Senior High Schools.

Critics have said there was no need for the GES to spend a whopping GHS34.5 million to procure the past questions and answers for the final year students.

But GES in defence, noted that the fact that the nation was not buying past questions for students in the past does not mean it is illegal for it to do so now.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday, August 26, 2021, the Director General of GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amakwah noted that the nation faces the risk of being haunted in future by misfits churned out by the education system today.

“It is not a misplaced priority. If we were not doing this in the past due to limited resources, it does not mean going forward we shouldn’t. If we decide to make the school system churn out misfits, it will come back to hunt us,” he noted.

According to the Education Minister, 446,954 sets of past questions were procured at a unit price of GHC78.

Dr. Adutwum while briefing Parliament in July indicated, “to help prepare the final year Senior High School students for the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Ministry has procured 446,954 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) questions from Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit price of GHS 78.00. The procurement will be funded from the Free Senior High School Account.”

But the critics said government was only wasting a huge amount just to make the students score good grades to help government score political points.

The debate has arisen again as many are questioning government for spending such an amount in such critical times when feeding the students has become problematic.

But the Director General of GES disagrees.

He says preparing the students to pass well in the examination with such materials is a common practice everywhere.

“We can’t say that preparing students to perform well in examinations is bad. All over the world, there are three things that are done in schools. They are curriculum, instructions, and assessments. When we are drawing the programs, we usually begin by assessing them, which helps us to design the kind of curriculum that we want.

"…we go to school not to fail, so let’s get it right. At all costs, it is the responsibility of GES to ensure that people pass and pass well. Our ultimate is to have 100%,” he stated strongly.