GES told to swap invigilators

Accra, Jan. 13, GNA - A Teacher has called on Ghana Education Service (GES) to stop teachers from invigilating in their own schools during the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE) because they often assisted their students.

The Teacher, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday on condition of anonymity, wanted Invigilators from one school sent to invigilate in another school within the same town or district as a means of stopping collusion during examinations.

He said the swapping of Invigilators had become necessary because some teachers, who refused to assist their students during the examinations, were given names by their colleagues, "indeed some were taunted that they could not answer the questions that was why they refused to assist".

The Teacher cited instances where Subject Masters in connivance with Examination Centre Supervisors and Invigilators entered examination halls to answer the objective examination questions and thereafter left the answers with the Invigilators to call them out to the candidates. He said the practice had assumed alarming dimensions with the present competition among schools with each trying to outscore the other at the SSSCE.

"Some of the teachers are willing corroborators because they use the results to justify the huge sums of money they collect from parents for providing extra tuition for some specific students in the same school," he said.

"There is also the unhealthy competition among Subject Masters to determine who is 'hot' at a particular subject, based on the students' performance at the SSSCE," he said.

The Teacher said: "The advent of cell/mobile phones has removed the surprise element in the visits of WAEC Representative to the various district examination centres because their movements are monitored and communicated to examination Supervisors and Invigilators."

He stressed the need for the GES to collaborate with WAEC to address the problem no matter the cost since, according to him, the practice was worse than the leakage of examination questions.