Prevention of WASSCE malfeasance: The only way out

The incidence of examination malpractices has become so widespread that there is virtually no examination anywhere in Ghana, at any level, and outside the formal school system, that there is no one form of 'sharp practice' or the other (Ijaiya, 2007).

The preponderance of examination malpractice in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Ghana is eroding the credentials of industrious school leavers and their teachers alike.

Thus, it is now a herculean task trying to distinguish between results that are genuine and deserving of congratulations and the product of those borne out of examination malfeasance, notoriously referred to as 'apor'.

The height of impunity with which students approached 'apor' in the just ended 2021 WASSCE included but was not limited to an alleged smashing of the windscreen of an invigilator's car in Nkawkaw Senior High School and an alleged destruction of the farm of an Assistant Headmaster of Osei Tutu Senior High School on the back of strict invigilation.

What does this mean? It only means that students of today see 'apor' as a right which they lay claim to just as the right to vote, work etcetera because if it were not so, the students would not be courageous enough to do what they do when their attempt to cheat during examination is foiled by invigilators.

In order to address this unceremonious drawback in our educational system, the ONLY measure to put forward for consideration, to if not eradicate this menace completely, profer some level of reduction is simple.

It is my humble opinion that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) stops Senior High Schools from writing the WASSCE in their own schools. Thus, students should be made to write the exams in another school with invigilators selected from the host school.

Thus, students in senior high school 'A' may use the facilities and teachers (invigilators) of senior high school 'B' and students of high school 'B', sent to high school 'C' to use their facilities and teachers as invigilators. While students in high school 'C' are sent to high school 'A'. In this way, there would be no problem in respect of inadequacy of facilities in respect of classrooms or auditoriums for the examination.

This will reduce the incidence of examination malpractices as the students do not know the invigilators, have not made any acquaintances or friends amongst them, have not built any good rapport with them and so can not easily influence them to panda to their wishes in the examination hall.

Additionally, the students happen to find themselves in a completely new environment which alone can suppress any infelicitous behaviour that is at variance with the examination etiquette.

The only way out!