Kyebi, May 24, GNA - Professor Joseph Kingsley Aboagye of the University College of Education, Winneba, (UCEW) has stated that examination malpractices still pose a major challenge to Ghana's quest for quality education at all levels of the system.

He said if the situation was not checked it would eventually devalue certificates, diplomas and degrees awarded by academic institutions. Prof. Aboagye has, therefore, called on all stakeholders in education to join forces to get it uprooted from all levels of the educational system.

"If we fail to do this, the value of our certificates will be devalued and the quest for quality education will only be a mirage," he emphasized. Prof. Aboagye, who is the head of Department of Sociology at the UCEW, was addressing the third graduation ceremony of the Kyebi Presbyterian College of Education at the weekend.

He said the high rate of examination malpractices had caused a defeat of the core purpose of education, which was the training of the mind and character and acquisition of practical and theoretical skills, knowledge and the creation of ideas.

Prof. Aboagye said the lack of seriousness on the part of some students was a major contributory factor to examination malpractices in the sense that some students had little time for their studies and spent more time attending parties and forming gangs to engage in untoward behaviour.

He also said the syllabus of some subjects like Science and Mathematics as too wide and difficult for teachers to cover because of the shortened of school periods by events such as holidays, sports, the shift system and late resumption of school by students.

Prof. Aboagye suggested that Christian groups should campaign against the malpractice on and off campus and motivate others to spread the message so that the misbehaviour would be viewed as an evil that would attract God's sanctions.

He also suggested that the moral upbringing of children of Christian and Muslim parents should be enhanced so that all children would be brought up properly in accordance with God standards.

The Principal of the College, the Reverend Emmanuel Yaw Omenako, said the National Accreditation Board had approved the three years Institutional Reaccredidation to the college with effect from September last year.

He said during the year under review, the college continued to run two academic programmes which were the regular three-year Diploma in Basic Education programme and the Untrained Teachers' Diploma in Basic Education programme.

Rev. Omenako said in the regular programme, there had been no significant change in enrolment, which stood at 526 with 359 males and 167 females.

The Principal suggested to the government to improve the funding of colleges of education.

In all 183, students graduated and received Diplomas in Basic Education.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Kwasi Apea-Kubi, in an address read on his behalf, said the relevance of teacher-education to national development could not be over-emphasized and needed to be given the utmost attention.

He said the quality of human resources of any nation depended upon the quality of education the nation offered.