Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister for Education commended the three (3) overall best students of the 2023 West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in his office, on Tuesday 26th March 2024 when the Director-General of GES, Dr Eric Nkansah led the students to pay a courtesy call on the Minister.

He congratulated the students for making Ghana proud and urged them to forge and excel in their various fields of study at the tertiary level.

The Minister for Education applauded the winners and urged them to use the awards as a springboard to win many more laurels for themselves, their families and the country at large.

He added that “life is a journey, you begin today, you work hard and by the time you realise you are up there.”

Dr Adutwum recommended two books to the International Award winners. “Research and read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers which discusses the “Ten Thousand Hour Rule” and the Heroes Journey by Joseph Campbell, apart from the Bible, let these books guide you and you will climb to become the best in the world.”

Dr Adutwum said this when he hosted the three award winners in his office in Accra.

For their part, the three award winners appreciated the Minister for the warm reception and assured him of their continuous commitment to academic excellence.
On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the three were awarded at the 72nd Annual WAEC Council Meeting as the best three (3) out of the 2,327,342 students from the five (5) member countries who sat for the WASSCE 2023.

Amo-Kodieh Leonard Kofi Marton from the St James Seminary Senior High School came first, Dzandu Selorm from Labone Senior High School placed second and Daniel Asenso-Gyambibi also from St James Seminary placed third. The three topped the 2,327,342 candidates who sat for the WASSCE (SC) 2023 in the five member countries of WAEC.

For the first prize, the overall best student took home $1500, the second-place winner received a second-prize award of $1200 and the third-prize winner received $900 from the WAEC Endowment Fund.



Currently, Mr Amo-Kodieh and Mr Dzandu are reading Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology while Mr Asenso-Gyambibi is a Computer Engineering student at the Ashesi University.

The International Excellence Awards for WASCCE for School Candidates are presented to the three (3) overall best candidates from the member countries that subscribe to the WASSCE, namely the Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Representing Ghana at the awards ceremony were council members of the WAEC, led by the Chief Government nominee, who is also the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr Eric Nkansah; Ghana’s Non-Council Member on the Board of Trustees of the WAEC Endowment Fund, Nana Appiagyei Dankawoso I; the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Mrs Mamle Andrews; the Head of National Office (HNO), Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, and all the other members.
The International Excellence Awards was instituted in 1985 to reward and celebrate candidates with outstanding performance in the Council’s Senior High School Certificate examinations.