The Ghana Education Service (GES), says the procurement of past questions for final year students of public second cycle schools is very necessary.
The procurement of past questions and office stationery at a cost of almost GHS34.5 million generated a lot of controversies.
The move comes at a time government has not been able to procure textbooks for the newly introduced standard-based curriculum.
At a press briefing in Accra, on Thursday, August 26, 2021, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa explained his outfit’s position.
“We can’t say that preparing students to perform well in examinations is bad. All over the world, there are three things that are done in schools. They are curriculum, instructions, and assessments. When we are drawing the programs, we usually begin by assessing them, which helps us to design the kind of curriculum that we want. We go to school not to fail, so let’s get it right. At all costs, it is the responsibility of GES to ensure that people pass and pass well. Our ultimate is to have 100%.”
“It is not a misplaced priority. If we were not doing this in the past due to limited resources, it does not mean going forward we shouldn’t. If we decide to make the school system churn out misfits, it will come back to hunt us.”
The government procured some 460,000 past questionsfor final year SHS students who sat for the last examinations.
Those who criticised the move were of the view that the government was bent on ensuring a good pass mark for the first batch of Free Senior High School graduates just to score political points, despite the challenges the policy is going through.