WAEC must open itself to greater scrutiny and accountability – GNAPS

Professor Damasus Tuurosong, National President of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), has called on the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to open its operations to greater scrutiny and accountability, particularly regarding the conduct and outcomes of public examinations.

He said concerns raised by stakeholders about examination results should not be misconstrued as acts of rebellion but regarded as legitimate demands for fairness, transparency and accountability.

Prof Tuurosong made the call at the opening of the 30th Annual General Conference of GNAPS in Ho, where he addressed issues surrounding the conduct and outcome of the 2026 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), as well as the Association's engagements with the National Teaching Council (NTC) and the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA).

He said GNAPS was not a pressure group seeking confrontation with state institutions and stressed that the Association supported effective regulation and the enforcement of standards within the education sector.

“Regulation is not our enemy. Standards are not our foe,” he said, noting that a well-regulated education sector protected children, parents and credible school proprietors.

Prof Tuurosong said private schools continued to complement government efforts by expanding access to education, employing young graduates and supporting children whose parents were unable to pay school fees promptly.

He said concerns raised by GNAPS over BECE entry fees and what the Association described as poor examination results were not intended to attack WAEC or the Ministry of Education but to seek clarity, fairness and consistency in the assessment of candidates.

“Our concern was with fairness, with consistency, and with the right of every candidate and every school to understand how outcomes were achieved,” he said.

Prof Tuurosong said stakeholders had a responsibility to question issues affecting the education of children, adding that accountability was essential to maintaining public confidence in the country's educational assessment system.

“Asking a question is not an act of rebellion. It is a cry for accountability,” he said, adding that WAEC should be willing to subject its work to greater scrutiny.

“The West African Examinations Council should be interested in opening its windows and doors to greater scrutiny. After all, darkness breeds corruption,” he stated.

Touching on teacher licensing, Prof Tuurosong said GNAPS supported the principle that every child deserved a qualified, licensed and professionally supported teacher.

He, however, called for a licensing and professional development regime that recognised the circumstances of private schools and remained accessible and affordable to teachers across the country, including those in rural and underserved communities.

On the activities of NaSIA, the GNAPS President commended the Authority's leadership for demonstrating that enforcement and cordial engagement could go hand in hand in regulating schools.

He said inspections should not only identify weaknesses but also support schools to improve, stressing that “inspection that instructs builds a sector, while inspection that merely indicts diminishes one.”

Prof Tuurosong appealed to NaSIA to support private schools through capacity-building programmes and advocate the extension of interventions, including capitation grants, state-sponsored training and basic educational materials, to low-fee private schools.

He said GNAPS would continue to engage, comply and collaborate with regulatory institutions while ensuring that its members adhered to the required standards.

“We will also speak. We will insist on being counted correctly, described accurately and consulted genuinely. That is not agitation; that is partnership conducted with mutual respect,” he said.

GNA