A member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has attributed the uncouth behaviour displayed by some final year Senior High School students to the Free SHS policy government introduced.

Although he condemned the bad attitude exhibited by the students sitting for this year’s West African Senior School Certification Examination (WASSCE), Samoa Addo noted that the supply of past questions was perceived by the students to be an assured way to pass their final exams.

According to the private legal practitioner, an attempt to use past questions as a lifeline to rescue a policy caused the widely condemned conduct of some of the students in the past few days.

“The attempt to use past questions as a lifeline to rescue a policy that is good in theory but has been poorly implemented, this is the result… We condemn the insult and all that, but we should look at the underlying problem and that problem has to do with the poor implementation of the free SHS policy…These kids are being used as guinea pigs, unfortunately, but we are praying that they muster the courage to be able to write these exams. They should not rely on any past questions,” he said on The Big Issue.

This year’s WASSCE unfolded with some reactions from students who expressed fury with some insulting president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo stating that the examination was difficult and was not exactly what was in the past questions the government provided.

Meanwhile, students of the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School and Juaben Senior High School threatened to boycott their exams because they thought supervisors were ‘too strict’ during the supervision of their first paper.

It was more at Bright Senior High School where students at Kukurantumi attacked some invigilators.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) in response, sanctioned students involved in the acts.

Although he stated that the sanctions were appropriate, Nii Kpakpo Samoa believes government must take responsibility for the situation.

“Because of the lack of broad consultation, its [Free SHS] implementation has been disastrous and what it has produced is half-baked students who then are given a lifeline of past questions with the belief that these questions are our messiah because we have not adequately completed our syllabus. We lack the necessary preparation and so when we are given these past questions, this is like the lifeline. Let’s just study these past questions and by some magic, we will pass,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku constituency, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye has dismissed the assertion.

According to him, the behaviour of the students is only a reflection of the current Ghanaian society.