MoE spokesman cries foul over ‘good’ 2022 WASSCE results

Ministry of Education (MoE) spokesman, Kwasi Kwarteng after the West African Examinations Council released the 2022 WASSCE results has lamented over media silence on the excellent performance of students who sat for the exams.

In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek.com, the Public Relations Officer said he receives 300 calls a day when food shortage hits schools but 4 days after the release of results he is yet to receive several calls on the results.

“I receive an average of 300 calls a day when news of food shortages hits the media. It’s been 4days since the WASSCE results were released, and so far I’ve received only a call from JoyNews. We seem not to be interested in the positive trends,” he said.

His comment comes after President Akufo-Addo following the excellent performance of prospective students who sat for this year’s WASSCE said the 2022 WASSCE School results are better than the examination results of previous years.

Speaking at the 70th Anniversary of Opoku Ware School on December 3, 2022, he attributed the achievement of the Free SHS beneficiaries in the examination to the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School policy.

“6 years on following the implementation of the Free SHS policy, which has guaranteed SHS education for 1.7 million children I can state, without equivocation, that I am very proud of the policy and of its results thus far,” he stated.

The President noted that the 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination results of the third batch of the “Akufo-Addo graduates” shows 60.39% of students recording A1-C6 in English, as opposed to 51.6% in 2016.

In Integrated Science, Mr Nana Addo Dankwa noted that 62.45% recorded A1-C6 in Integrated Science in 2022, as opposed to 48.35% in 2016, with the 2022 result being a slight regression from the 2021 pass rate of 65.70%.

President Nana Akufo-Addo added that 61.39% of students recorded A1-C6 in Mathematics, as compared to 33.12% in 2016; and 71.51% recorded A1-C6 in Social Studies, as compared to 54.55% in 2016.

“Lest we forget, the 2021 batch of students, who also obtained very commendable results, were the pioneers of the double track system, which elicited a lot of vilification and unfounded criticism on its introduction,” he said.

His Excellency continued, “the 2022 results are the best of the last eight (8) years. Surely, there can no longer be any controversy about the validity of the Free SHS policy and its consequential measures. It is working and working well

The government has devoted even more resources for the running of the Free SHS policy. From a budget of GH¢2.3 billion in 2022, a 28.6% increase has been applied to this year’s budget for Free SHS, i.e., GH¢2.96 billion.”