Govt pays ¢55m to WAEC over 2023 WASSCE & BECE cancellation
The government after Minority in Parliament said a debt it owes the West African Examinations Council poses a risk of 2023 WASSCE and BECE cancellation has paid an amount of GH¢55 million for the administration of the examinations.
A spokeswoman for the Council, Winifred Ampiaw who confirmed the payment on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News monitored by AcademicWeek.com said the amount will enable her outfit to conduct the examinations smoothly.
“I can say that we have received some amount of money that will enable us to conduct the exams, for both the West African Senior School Certificate Examination and Basic Education Certificate Examination. However, there’s a payment plan to pay the rest
“This amount will enable us to take care of the pre-exams activities and the conduct of the exams itself. We’ve received GH¢55 million in total received, I know for a fact that we have received the money,” She told the host of Eyewitness News.
“The payment is for this year’s exams, we are supposed to spend a rough estimate of GH¢18 million for BECE. For WASSCE, the total cost for just the pre and the conduct of the main will take us to GH¢63.5 million.
We are left with about GH¢7.5 million. However, I want to assure the public that yes, we are in the position to conduct both exams for this year,” the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Public Relations Officer further added.
The swift payment of the GH¢55 million comes after the Deputy Ranking Member on Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak described the debt government owe WAEC as worrisome and needs to be treated with urgency.
“The issue at hand is worrisome because invigilators, supervisors and examiners have not been paid as they ought to and the reason WAEC has been unable to pay them is the government is failing to pay WAEC for fees,” Apaak told Citi.
