Ho, March 22, GNA - Only two out of five senior secondary schools in Ho turned up for a symposium to educate them on regulations governing examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council WAEC) as part of the 54 anniversary celebrations of the council.

Mr Justice Ansah-Asare, the Volta Regional Branch Controller of Examinations of the Council, expressed disappointment at the situation and said it had undermined the purpose of the symposium.

"I must confess that I am disappointed that all the schools we invited failed to turn up with their teachers".

The symposium was under the theme, " WAEC in nation building". The over 500-seat capacity WAEC hall was virtually empty except for workers of the council and about 60 students and their teachers. Mr Kofi Mensah, the Ho Municipal Director of Education, said the greatest asset of a nation was its human resource and that the nation could develop when the people were properly trained and educated. He said in view of the important role that WAEC plays in human resource development of the nation, it was very important that everybody assisted it by ensuring that the rules and regulations put in place for the conduct of examinations were obeyed.

"We should not seek shortcuts and other unapproved procedures to obtain assessments we do not deserve", he said.

Mr Kofi Torku, Assistant Director in charge of Administration and Finance at the Ghana Education Service (GES), advised students to refrain from the "unforgivable sin" of cheating in examinations but should study hard so that by the time they were due to write their exams they would be adequately prepared.