Ministry of Education claims WAEC PRO’s comments are inaccurate

The Ministry of Education (MoE) clarified in a statement that it has honored the West African Examination’s financial requests debunking the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) contrasting comments.

The statement released on Thursday, December 26,2024 indicated that in a letter dated December 20, 2024, signed by the Head of the National Office of WAEC (Ref. No. HNO/GES/MOE/VOL.28/156), WAEC formally acknowledged the receipt of a cheque for GHS 25,000,000 from the Ministry of Education.

According to the statement, the payment is a portion of the Ministry’s financial commitment towards the 2024 WASSCE (School Candidates) examination fees.

In addition , the Ministry stated that WAEC had asked for an extra GHS 35,000,000 to support the processing of the 2024 WASSCE results, which it had honoured and subsequently disbursed to WAEC.

“Therefore, it is surprising that the WAEC PRO has publicly denied receiving the GHS 25,000,000 payment, even though official records attest to its acceptance.” The statement mentioned

“It is important to emphasize that, as of July 2024, the Ministry has disbursed a total of GHS 167,976,815 to WAEC, in fulfillment of its financial obligations to the Council,” the statement further stated.

The ministry urged the public to remain calm as they work closely with WAEC to ensure the release of the 2024

According to a CitiNewsroom report, the ministry admonished that the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapio, to confirm information internally before making statements that might mistakenly mislead the public or reflect poorly on the Ministry’s efforts.

The ministry’s call to WAEC’s PRO follows Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum’s announcement to reporters that the 2024 WASSCE results would be made public by December 29 following his visit to the WAEC office on Tuesday.

He claimed that WAEC was completing the marking procedure and making efforts to guarantee that the results were released on time.

However, WAEC rejected the assertion, stating that the Minister’s pledge that GHc25 million had been released to the Council for its operational activities and that the results would be made public by December 29, 2024, was false.

John Kapi told Graphic that “Without any formal meeting with the management team of WAEC, he addressed the media present, assuring them that results would be released by December 29.”

“The Council awaits the release of the additional GHc35 million it has requested from the Ministry of Education to enable it to fix the broken-down scanners, conclude scanning of the objective test answer cards, and then process the results.”

With the tertiary academic year beginning in early January, 2025, the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) candidates have been left uncertain regarding the release date of their results.

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) recently announced in a statement that a new re-opening date for prospective first year Ghanaian undergraduate students will be made known after the release of the released after the announcement of the 2024 WASSCE results. Other universities are yet to announce the admission dates for prospective first year students.

Source: Nsem360.com