Absentee students to be dismissed - Deputy DG

Accra, July 12, GNA - Students who absent themselves from school for 28 days without notice after registering for external examinations would have their names deleted from the register, dismissed or asked to repeat their class, Madam Lydia Osei, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said on Tuesday.

This disciplinary measure, she said, was to be enforced to deter students, who for no reason absented themselves from examinations. The Deputy Director-General, who made this known when she went round to monitor the conduct of the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE) in some schools in Accra urged school heads to furnish the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) with names of absentee students to enable them to delete their names from the examination register.

She explained that WAEC used the total number of candidates to determine the average performance of schools and that if these anomalies were not corrected it would go against such schools. At 0930 hours when the GES Monitoring Team got to the Accra Girls Secondary School 462 students were writing the English Paper One and there were three absentees.

Miss Veronica Akapame, Headmistress, told newsmen that there were no hitches.

She said two absentees were sick and one was out of the country. When the Team reached Odorgono Secondary School at about 1030 hours, the Paper was over and students were preparing for the next paper scheduled for 1400 hours.

Mr Alfred Tackie, Assistant Headmaster, said 311 students wrote the paper with three absentees. He said they were yet to find out why the three students were absent.

He told the Team that the school had not encountered any problem since the examinations commenced last week. 12 July 05