74 candidates wrote Arabic in 2016/2017 WASSCE

Five Islamic Senior High Schools (SHS), in Ghana presented 74 candidates who wrote Oral Arabic at the 2016/2017 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

The schools include Al-Azhariya Islamic Senior High School at Old-Tafo in Kumasi, Sakafia (SHS) at Ayigya in Kumasi and Hamisa (SHS) in Madina, in Accra.

Others are Mercy (SHS), at Japan Motors near Madina in Accra and Hambariya (SHS) in Tamale.

Speaking to the media in Kumasi, the President of Federation of Islamic Senior High Schools in Ghana (FISHSIG), Sheikh Mohammed Kamil Mohammed, said Arabic as an examinable subject has been a long standing one.

He said Arabic was examinable in Ghana during General Certificate of Education (GCE), Ordinary and Advance (O and A) levels era.

“Ghana only stopped doing it when the country introduced the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) which was a national examination,” he noted.

The President of FISHSIG said since the introduction of WASSCE, Arabic has been part of examinable subjects being offered by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in the other West African Member Countries, and efforts to bring it back as an examinable subject at the SSCE or WASSCE level in Ghana have proven futile since 2000.

Sheikh Mohammed Kamil, is also the Deputy National Imam of Ahlul-Sunna Wal Jamaa, in charge of Education and Da’awa, and Director of Al-Azhariya Islamic Schools (Basic and SHS) in Kumasi, disclosed that more candidates were also expected to present in the 2017/2018 in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Arabic.

“The Ghana Education Service (GES) inspected some of our Schools including Al-Azhariya (SHS) and Islamic (SHS) in Kumasi, as well as others in Tamale and found them satisfactory in the teaching of Arabic as a subject hence the approval given by GES,” he added.

The FISHSIG President disclosed that there are Arabic teachers already teaching the subject in their basic schools who are employed and paid by the state since 1987.

“So, one may ask; if the government has been paying teachers to teach the subject all these years and have now decided to make the teaching and learning of the subject more effective by making it become part of the examinable subjects for students who choose to do the subject just like French, then what is the big about this,” he lamented.

He commended the Baraka Policy Institute (BPI), a Research Think Tank in Islamic Education, the offices of the National Chief Imam and the Ahlul Sunna Wal Jamaa for their efforts for the approval for students in Islamic Senior High Schools preparing for WASSCE to write the Arabic examination beginning 2017.