Accra, Dec. 8, GNA - Master Kwesi Ntiamoah Adarkwa, a former student of Chemu Secondary School in Tema, was on Friday adjudged the overall best student for 2005 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE).

Master Adarkwa was also named the best candidate for the General Science programme at 2005 Excellence Award ceremony in Accra. He was given a total amount of 550 dollars, two certificates and two plagues for the school he represented - 330 dollars as his prize for being the overall best student and 250 dollars for being the overall best General Science Student.

Master Adarkwa, who is currently pursuing a pre-university education in Hong Kong, won a scholarship for his exemplary performance and the award was received on his behalf by his five-year old brother Nana Kojo.

Kwesi Ntiamoah Adarkwa born on 8 January 1989 demonstrated excellence throughout his basic education and scored the highest mark of 547 during his SSSCE and had 'A's in all the subjects. Masterr Adarkwa has expressed the hope of becoming either an electrical, telecommunication or an Information Communication, Technology (ICT) engineer.

Miss Nana Yaa Antwi-Gyamfi from the Wesley Girls High School was adjudged the overall second best and she received a total of 500 dollars, two certificates of recognition and two plagues for the school she attended.

She got two hundred and fifty dollars for being the second overall best student and another 250 dollars for being the best in the General Arts Programme.

Nana Yaa, who is currently in the University of Ghana Business School, expressed her ambition of pursuing a banking course after her degree in addition to setting up a dancing school to bring out the talents of future dancers.

Master Victory Kwabena Ametepey, currently reading medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, was named the third overall best candidate.

Mr Ametepey formerly of Bishop Herman Secondary School, Kpando, received as his prize an amount of 200 dollars, a certificate and a plague for his former school.

Master Richard Don Ahafe formerly of Kpando Secondary School received 250 dollars for being the best candidate in the Business programme. Mr Ahafe, who is currently at the University of Ghana Business School, expressed the hope of becoming the Governor of Bank of Ghana in the future. He also received a certificate and a plague for his school. Mrs Patience Ayesu, Head of the National Office at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), explained that the awards were given to the first, second and third overall best candidates for the SSSCE and the best candidate in each of the seven programmes for the examination. The criteria used to select this year's award winners were that students should obtain grade 'A' in all four-core subjects, grade 'A' in any three elective subjects and not worse than grade 'C' in the fourth elective subject.

Mrs Ayesu further explained that the raw score obtained by candidates who satisfied the above stated criteria are added up after which they were listed in order of merit to ensure fairness. She said 37 out of a total of 112,577 students satisfied the criteria for the awards and noted that for the past four years no candidate from the Home Economics; Visual Arts; Agricultural and Technical programmes satisfied the criteria for the selection. She, however, said the general performance of school candidates in July/August 2005 SSCE was encouraging since more than 50 per cent of candidates for all the core subjects passed at grade E with the best performance being in social studies with a total cumulative pass of 92.02 per cent.

Mrs Ayesu mentioned lack of understanding of questions and instructions, poor expression, poor spelling and inadequate knowledge of subject matter and poor presentation as some observation made by the Chief Examiner.

She suggested that the teaching and learning of the English language, particularly grammar, should be taken seriously since it was the main medium of instruction in schools. "Candidates should be taught how to answer questions; the habit of reading should be inculcated in all students and teachers should make every effort possible to cover as much of their syllabuses as possible and give enough exercises to their students," Mrs Ayesu said. She expressed worry about various forms of examination malpractices, mentioning the most prevalent form as collusion constituting 63.5 per cent.

Mrs Ayesu appealed to the Ghana Education Service and various teachers' associations to give their support in the bid to curb the canker.

She pledged the Council's commitment to mete out appropriate punishment to offending candidates as spelt out in the rules and regulations.

The excellence award scheme instituted in 1985 is conferred on candidates who excel at the SSSCE.