Teachers who collude to cheat at examinations would be sanctioned - GES

Director-General

Accra, Jan. 18 GNA - Mr Michael Nsowah, Acting Director - General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), on Tuesday warned that the Service would not hesitate to sanction any Teacher, who was found to be colluding with students to engage in examination malpractice.

He, however, denied that Teachers, who were sent to invigilate in their own schools during Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSSCE), often assisted their students.

He said as far as GES was concerned a Master who taught, for example Mathematics, would not be allowed to invigilate the same subject or connive with Examination Centre Supervisors to enter the exams hall to answer questions for their students.

Mr Nsowah, who spoke to the GNA, was reacting to claims by some Teachers that some of their colleagues connived to teach their students. He called on the Teachers, who made the allegations to contact the appropriate authorities for the necessary action to be taken if evidence could be adduced to support the claims.

He said, even though the suggestion of swapping invigilators from one examination centre to another was a good idea it would require a lot of resources.

The Acting Director-General urged Headmasters of all second cycle schools across the country to put in place mechanisms that would make it impossible for Teachers and students to cheat during examinations. A Teacher, who wanted to remain anonymous, had told the GNA that when a colleague refused to assist her students during last year's SSSCE the other Teachers in her school called her names and jeered at her saying she could not answer the questions and that was the reason why she refused to assist.

Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Senior Public Affairs Officer of the West African Examination Council, who also spoke to the GNA, said even though with science practical the subject masters were allowed to set-up the laboratory, they were not allowed to supervise their students. Meanwhile Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said WAEC would release the

November/December 2004 Examination Results in February 2005. She said, even though, some of the public Universities would have collected their application forms by the end of January, they would stick to the their original timetable, which most of the candidates were aware of.