The Proprietor of Chief Montessori School in Obuasi East has said that without the consent and pressure of parents, examination malpractices would have been a thing of the past. According to the Educationist, parents push headteachers and teachers to help their wards for them to get good grades in examinations.
Speaking to Obuasi Today, Alex Ansah Kofi Owusu, who founded and runs the Chief Montessori School in Obuasi East, revealed that, some parents intentionally treat some teachers well, buying gifts for them. This, he said, makes the teacher to go every length in order to make the student pass even if he/she has to send answers to the student in an examination hall.
He also added that the decision of parents to move their wards to schools that perform better in the BECE also puts pressure on school heads to do everything possible to make their students pass in order to increase their enrolment.
“Getting to the BECE, some parents even ask school heads how teachers can help the students to pass and even make suggestions on how much to charge parents,” he said.
“If a school does not perform well in the BECE, parents will start withdrawing their wards from that school, sending them to schools that got high grades. The school that got high grades would want to keep the new students and so will do everything possible to maintain their good grades even if they have to cheat during examinations” he added.
His comments were necessitated by the numerous reports of examination malpractices recorded during this year’s WASSCE and BECE examinations. Last year, 3 teachers in Obuasi were sacked from GES for their involvement in examination malpractices at the BECE.
Recently, a Corruption Watch investigation uncovered grand schemes existing in some second-cycle institutions for assisting candidates to cheat in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The investigation, conducted in the Ashanti and Bono regions of the country before and during the conduct of the 2021 WASSCE for School Candidates, revealed that some schools had instituted special levies which they charge students in return for help to solve examination questions.
Corruption Watch discovered at All For Christ Senior High/Technical School (SHTS) and Duadaso Number 1 Senior High/Technical School, both in the Bono Region, that the said levies are put in a pool and used to compromise teachers and invigilators to solve questions for students in the examination hall.
This situation isn’t limited to only senior high schools, according to Alex Ansah Kofi Owusu. He believes some basic schools have also initiated similar schemes.