‘He wants us to score F9’ – Tweneboa Kodua SHS students protest against 'strict' headmaster

Investigations have started after WASSCE candidates of the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School at Sekyere Kumawu in the Ashanti Region went on a demonstration Monday.

The over 1,200 students are demanding the removal of the headmaster of the school, Mr. John Asante, who has been accused of being strict on them during the sitting of the Integrated Science paper.

“They want us to get F9, unacceptable”, a student is heard on a video widely shared online while others scattered tables and chairs at the school’s dining hall.

Police were later called in to restore calm as the protest nearly halted the Paper 2 of the Integrated Science exam.

District Chief Executive of Sekyere Kumawu, Mr. Samuel Addai Agyekum, told Dailymailgh.com that steps would be taken to resolve the matter.

“We were monitoring the exams and we had to go to Tweneboa Kodua so on my way there I saw the students chanting [and] demanding the removal of the headmaster. They were accusing the headmaster of being autocratic and so I have directed the CID to investigate and report same to me”, the DCE said.

More than 300,000 students are sitting for the exam in Ghana supervised by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Already, some unscrupulous persons have been sharing question papers online in an attempt to defraud unsuspecting candidates.

In a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, the Council said that some alleged leaked papers making round on social media are all fake.

“The attention of WAEC has been drawn to the circulation of several fake versions of the Integrated Science 1 & 2 papers to be administered on 3 August 2020 on social media platforms”, the statement said.

The Council said it “wishes to allay the fears of all stakeholders, especially the candidates about the alleged leakage of the papers”.

It noted that a “scrutiny of the images being shared on social media indicates, once again, the activities of certain individuals, mainly operators of rogue websites and WhatsApp groups aimed at leading candidates astray and discrediting the Council”.

WAEC said it “is very vigilant and has alerted the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and the National Security Secretariat “about the threats posed by these groups”.

“The Council assures all its stakeholders that it has put in place all the necessary measures to ensure the smooth conduct of the WASSCE for school candidates”, the statement added.

This year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) started Monday, 3 August 2020, with a total of 375,737 candidates in over 796 examination centres across the country.

Some 187,574 of the candidates are males and 188,163 are females.

The Ashanti region had the highest number of candidates, 87,295, followed by Eastern region with 56,467 candidates.

The Bono, Bono East and Bono West regions presented 45,295 candidates made up of 22,043 males and 23,252 females in that order.

The Central region presented 42,946 candidates, comprising 21,009 males and 21,937 females.

According to the statistics, Greater Accra had 37,974 candidates with 19,484 being females; Oti and Volta regions 34,466 candidates with 17,622 being males.

In the Northern, ,Savana and North East Regions, 24,830 candidates are expected to sit the examination with 14,105 being males. The Western and Western North rehavens has 24,332 candidates with 12,601 females.

Upper East and West havens have 13,334 and 8,798 candidates, respectively.

The candidates are from 641 public and 335 private schools.

The private schools presented a total of 61,899 candidates with public schools presenting 313,838 students. Depending on their courses, the candidates are expected to write four core subjects and three other electives.

The examination is expected to end on 5 September 2020.