The Ghana Education Service (GES) has condemned education heads in Pusiga in the Upper East Region for allowing a mock examination question which told students that the Presidential Candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, is also known as “all die be die.”
A picture of the controversial political question in an English mock paper meant to prepare students for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) went viral last week.
Describing the question as substandard, the Public Relations Officer of GES, Reverend Jonathan Bettey, told Citi News that education authorities in the area should have been circumspect in setting the questions.
“It has come to the limelight that the schools in that district were writing a mock and that question came, which is related to the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, being nicknamed as ‘all die be die.’ Ghana Education Service has a standard in setting questions and for that matter WAEC that supervises our examination also has a standard,” he said.
He added, “I don’t think and believe that WAEC will set such questions for our candidates to answer in BECE.”
While condemning the questions set for the mock exams, Mr Bettey said “we will not encourage anybody to set political questions.”
“…We have condemned it and we have decided that we will speak to the district director and the headmaster of that school because as part of our routine practice, anytime questions of that nature for mock exams are set, we expect the headmaster to go through the questions to make sure they are standard before the children write,” he continued.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service, Rev Jonathan Bettey, said the matter would be investigated.
In a related development, the District Chief Executive Officer for Pusiga in the Upper East Region has apologised for the anomaly.
Speaking on Joy News on Friday, Alhassan Bugbilla said he had pleaded with the leadership of NPP in the area to “talk to whoever matters and let them know that it wasn’t a deliberate attempt to disrespect the NPP Flagbearer.”
The contentious statement was contained in question 18 of the section B part of the paper.
Many have criticised the Pusiga District Assembly for the question but the DCE says the District Education Directors were unable to go through the questions set by a private examinations body due to time constraint.
According to him, the mock was to prepare candidates for the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
“It is unfortunate that the development has come to this level, because I thought we were doing this for the development of the candidates in the district,” he stated.
Although he did not mention the name of the company responsible for the mishap, Alhassan Bugbilla said a private examinations body was contracted to set the examination questions.
By: www.dailyviewgh.com
