Don’t sack fee-owing, pregnant candidates – WAEC

The head of the West Africa Examinations Council, Rev. Sam Nii Nmai Ollennu has said that they will not discriminate in this year’s West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Re Ollennu said in order to avoid the discrimination all eligible students whether pregnant or indebted to their school will be allowed to take part in the exams.

Rev. Ollennu was speaking on Accra-based Class FM as the first paper starts on Tuesday, April 3, 2018.

Rev. Ollennu said: “Exams council does not prohibit anyone, no matter your status, whether pregnant, sick or whatever from writing the exams, so, everybody is expected to be allowed and I know that the GES also has stipulated that no person pregnant or not, should be disallowed from writing the examinations and I can only hope and trust that the directive by the GES will be followed, so, I trust that they will allow them.”

“But really again, we don’t determine that; it’s the Ghana Education Service that controls that aspect of examinations.”

When asked whether students owing fees will be allowed to write the exams, Rev Ollenu said they will be taking part but their results will be withheld until they pay their debt.

"No, they will not be sacked so far as I’m concerned because if you don’t pay, after the exam, the GES will submit the results of those who are owing and then we will withhold their results for a while for them to pay, so, for now nobody is supposed to be prevented from writing the examinations because of their indebtedness regarding examination fees or school fees.”

He also assured candidates and the general public that there will be no leakages of exam questions this year as has been the norm previously, as appropriate and stern measures have been put in place to prevent such issues.

Over 300,000 students are writing the exams this year.