The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has said the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) which started last week with the practicals is progressing smoothly.

It has, therefore, assured the general public that the examination has not yet entered the written phase, and therefore, what had happened at the Bolgatanga Technical Institute (BOTECH) and the Bawku Technical Institute (BAWTI) had nothing to do with the WASSCE.

“Those students were writing the Pre-Tertiary Technical and Vocational Core and Elective Subject Examination and not WASSCE as was reported by a section of the media,” the Head of the Public Affairs of the WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, explained.

The assurance followed concerns that the final year candidates that rioted at the BOTECH and BAWTI were writing the WASSCE, which incidentally started last Monday at almost the same time as the CTVET examination.

Mrs Teye-Cudjoe, therefore, urged the general public to remain calm, assuring that the WAEC was liaising with the national security and other security bodies to ensure that the examination was conducted free of malpractice.

She used the opportunity to remind the candidates that they could pass their examinations without engaging in examination malpractice.

Mrs Teye-Cudjoe cautioned the general public, especially candidates, to be wary of the activities of rogue website operators who lured candidates to part with money for "apo".

WASSCE 2022

She added that Ghanaian candidates were writing the ongoing WASSCE scheduled from August 1 to September 27, 2022 alone.

This is because the other four-member countries of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) — Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia — have returned to the May/June calendar and had administered the WASSCE for their school candidates from May 9 to June 24, this year.

The four countries have had their academic calendars streamlined to enable them to write the examination in May/June, as Ghana sticks to the ‘new normal’ calendar occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

She added that notwithstanding the fact that Ghana was taking the examination alone, Ghanaian candidates would still compete for the National Distinction Award and the WAEC Excellence Award with candidates from those countries.

Rioting

BOTECH was last week Tuesday shut down by the Upper East Regional Security Council following violent protests by some students of the school as a result of management’s decision to clamp down on examination malpractice.

The students, mostly males, had gone on the rampage, pelting the teachers with stones, resulting in some of the teachers taking cover in the library and the staff common room.

The angry students blocked the main entrance to the school as well as the main Bolgatanga-Navrongo road, which prevented motorists and other road users from using that stretch of the road during the demonstration.

Personnel of the police service was subsequently called in to disperse them and control the situation but they turned their anger on the police and pelted them with stones, leading to damage to the riot control van.

Warning shots were fired by the police to disperse the students but they ran into the school and destroyed seven vehicles and a number of motorbikes belonging to some teachers.