General News of Friday, 10 May 2002

Source: gna

Team investigating BECE leakages to present their report soon

The Minister of Education, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi on Thursday said the team investigating the leakage in the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) would present its findings to the Ministry by the end of the week.

The team had completed its investigations and the results would be made known as soon as the report was ready, Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi said after he opened the 9th consultative panel meeting of the Ministry and its development partners under the theme: Reducing Poverty through Quality Education- A shared goal.

It is the second to be held within six months and offers the opportunity to reflect over developments that have occurred in the educational sector. The Minister said the Ministry was prepared to deal with the culprits if the allegations were found to be true.

He assured the public that the team investigating the issue is very competent and would bring out the truth in the matter. Mr. John Budu Smith, Acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service said the extent to which the examination has leaked would determine the sanctions to be placed on those behind the issue.

Mr. Budu Smith however could not tell the extent of the leakage but noted the Ghana Education Service has trust in WAEC as well as the committee set up to investigate the matter and would not doubt the accuracy of the report.

Mr. Awuah Ofori, Director of Educational Affairs said that this was the first time such a thing has happened at the JSS level. He noted that some school children, realising that they would fail in their examination write anonymous letters to WAEC quoting alleged leakage in their centres.

He said though some of these allegations are not true, some turn out to be true, saying that school children are being vigilant these days. Some of the papers in this year's BECE were reported to have leaked which prompted the MOE to set up an investigation into the matter. The papers involved were the pre-technical skills and mathematics.