The Deputy Director-General for Ghana Education Service (GES), Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, has defended the Ministry of Education’s data analysis of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results.
According to him, the analysis is just an assessment of the effectiveness of the free SHS scheme, which was introduced by the Akufo-Addo led government.
The Ministry of Education has released a comparative analysis of the WASSCE results from 2015-2020.
The assessment covers the WASSCE performances of students comparatively under the NDC (2013-2016) and the NPP (2017-2020).
Speaking on Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Tandoh suggested that the analysis was a way of showing the influence of free SHS since its implementation and was not, in any way, meant to politicize the WASSCE results.
“Obviously, while I think I cannot directly speak to it, we already know the issues and the anticipation that people had in terms of the free SHS. In 2018, people were talking about the fact that free SHS has come to dilute quality, people are always bashing free SHS in terms of the fact that it is compromising on quality education and so for the Ministry of Education, which is headed by a government appointee, obviously they also want to show that they have not performed badly and I think the data speaks for itself.”
“The argument around free SHS diluting quality actually didn’t hold water if you compare like for like,” he added.
The GES Deputy Director-General stated that “my Director-General is presiding over the free SHS as the implementing person and he has been lashed over the past four years such that the policy is diluting quality. So, what my boss, as well as Mr. Prince Armah, is doing is to look at the performance of the first beneficiaries of the free SHS.”
