WASSCE Results Saga: WAEC director retracts 'scandalous' remark against Adutwum, begs for forgiveness

The Director of Public Affairs of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), John Kapi, has retracted his description of a claim by the Minister of Education that the commission will release the 2024 West Africa Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results on Sunday, December 29, 2024, as scandalous.

Speaking in an interview on GHOne TV, on December 26, 2024, John Kapi confirmed that WAEC received an amount of GH¢35 million it requested from the Ministry of Education, which would allow it to release the results around the times announced by the sector minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum.

He added that his outfit would be working round the clock to ensure that the 2024 WASSCE results are released before the end of December 2024.

“I think I commented on this issue last. That’s on the 24th of December. I think I used the word scandalous and I wish to retract that word and apologise to the minister… Yes, it is true, the Director of Finance and the Head of National Office have confirmed receipt of a cheque for GH¢35 million from the Ministry of Education.

“Yes, we earlier requested this particular amount. So that’s exactly the amount that has been given to us. And so we are going to see how best we can work round the clock and ensure that we are able to release the results by the end of this month. Let’s just say we’ll give ourselves a relief up to the end of the month,” he said.

Background:

John Kapi described as scandalous a statement by the Minister for Education that WAEC will release the 2024 WASSCE results on Sunday, December 29, 2024.

According to him, Dr Adutwum’s claim cannot be factually correct as there has not been any engagement or statement from WAEC to that effect.

“Let me tell you what happened this morning. The minister came there, he was taken around by the head of office, shown the broken-down machines, the ones that are working but not at full throttle because they were not fully fixed. They showed him the heap of objective answer cards to be scanned, and then he stepped out.

“There was no formal meeting like, ‘Okay, let’s sit down and discuss the way forward, what do we do? When are they going to fix the machines, when are they going to be able to do this?’ Nothing of that sort happened. Then he stepped out and told the media that we say we will release the results latest by the 28th or 29th of December. But WAEC has not issued any statement to that effect, so that is factually incorrect,” he told Starr FM in an interview.

He bemoaned the conduct of the minister and called for a collective effort in finding a solution to the challenges which have led to the delay in the release of the results.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum had assured the public that the 2024 WASSCE results will be released within the coming week.

Dr Adutwum, who was speaking to reporters following a working visit to WAEC, said the examination institution was working during the festivities to get the results out by December 29, 2024.

His comments on the matter come after WAEC announced that it was unable to process this year’s WASSCE results owing to funding constraints and logistical challenges.

The government is reported to be owing the examination body over GH¢100 million in debts, which has hampered its capacity to release the results of about 460,000 students nationwide.

But speaking to the media on Monday, the Minister was confident that the results will be released before the end of the year.

“I came to apprise myself of developments in terms of the fact that they are working now through the holidays to get the results out on or before the 29th of this month. So I came and I saw the workers; scanning is being done, close to 50% is done. They assure me that by the end of the day, 50% of scanning will be completed. On or about the 29th of this month, the results will come out,” the Education Minister said.

In the engagement with the media, the minister was confident that the several millions of debts owed to WAEC would not affect the release by the end of the month.

Asked whether the government will make additional payments to WAEC, the minister shot back, “Excuse me, you don’t have the facts.”

He made it clear that his visit to the premises was not to address the debt situation but rather to pay a routine visit to the examination body as he usually does.

BAI/

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