Examination malpractices are disturbing - Mills

Education minister Alex Tettey-Enyo President J. E. A. Mills has described the recent spate of examination malpractices in the country as "a disturbing development on our national landscape", and appealed to civil society, the church and parents to help inculcate desirable, noble and pure attitudes in students. The concern expressed by President Mills comes in the wake of the cancellation of some examination papers in the ongoing West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates, following suspicion that there had been leak. He also advised the youth to recognise that there was dignity in hard work, pointing out that "passing examination is not a game of life and death." President Mills made the comment in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, at the inauguration of a GH¢4 million basic school complex for the Trinity Lutheran Church School at Tema last Sunday. On behalf of the President, Mr Tettey-Enyo unveiled a plaque, while the President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana (ELCG), Rt Rev Dr Paul Kofi Fynn, cut the sod to mark the inauguration of the school. He advised the youth to let the prospects of academic success which had been achieved through a strong fight or hard work animate their thoughts and actions so that in the pursuit of academic excellence, the genuine sense of achievement would be pre-eminent. President Mills urged the youth to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for their personal development and that of the nation and cautioned them against its abuse for cyber crime and immoral purposes. The President commended the ELCG for making discipline and moral education an integral part of its educational curriculum and urged other educational institutions to emulate the example of the church. He lauded private sector participation in the education sector, saying, "nothing short of private participation in the provision of education at all levels will succeed in complementing the government’s resolve in educating the whole nation as a means of combating the menace of illiteracy and poverty". In his personal remarks, Mr Tettey-Eriyo, said the inauguration of the school complex had convinced him that Ghana's education system could be put on a sound footing if the basic level was well developed. "It's possible for Ghana to achieve quality basic education", Mr Tettey-Enyo stressed. The Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, Kempis Ofosu-Ware, said the government's agenda of human resource development could only be achieved through good quality education. He told the ELCG not to see the school as a profit-making venture, but as an investment to help develop the country. The Chairman of the National Education Board of the ELCG, Dr Delali Hodasi, said it was the aim of the church to establish a first-class basic school in every regional capital with the view to complementing the government's efforts at training children to become good future leaders of the nation. The school, which is a project of the ELCG, comprises 45 classrooms from the pre-school level to the junior high school level. It also has vocational, computer and science laboratories, as well as a bookshop, shopping mart and modem toilet facilities. The air-conditioned computer laboratory has a seating capacity of 80 and it is envisaged to serve a pupil population of 1,500. Currently, the pupil population of the school is 200. The inauguration of the school brings to three, the number of such magnificent school complexes built by the church in Accra, Tema and Kumasi. Overall, the church has built about 19 schools across the country. Preaching the ,sermon at a service earlier, Rt Revd Dr Fynn said Ghana was a great nation and, therefore, urged Ghanaians to have the belief that they could do a lot to develop the country. He, however, observed that there were many Ghanaians and foreigners abroad who did not want to come back home or invest in the country because of bureaucratic processes one had to go through before establishing a business. Rt Revd Dr Fynn, therefore, urged the government to address such bottlenecks in order to facilitate foreign direct investments in the country. Source: Daily Graphic