A former student of the Presbyterian Boy’s Senior High School (PRESEC), Legon, Kwame Brako Asante, has been adjudged the second-best candidate in the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
In the examination written by over two million candidates from the five countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia, the 17-year –old student, who studied General Science, had grade one in all eight subjects with a total score of 600.99.
Two Nigerians, Nweze Chinasa and Edeani Godswill, were first and third respectively in the 2021 WASSCE International Excellence Awards, held in Nigeria on Tuesday as part of the virtual 70th Annual Council Meeting of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
Master Asante, currently studying Computer Science at the Ashesi University College, received a certificate and a cheque for the amount of GH₵7,500 as his prize at the WAEC National Office in Accra, where stakeholders in Ghana monitored the event online.
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, who is also the Chief government nominee of Ghana on WAEC Council, presented the prize to him.
The brief ceremony was witnessed by WAEC officials, including the Head of Ghana National Office, Mrs Wendy Addy-Lamptey, some members of the Asante family, and representatives of the PRESEC old boys.
The elated master Asante told the Ghanaian Times that the feat was achieved through consistent learning and heeding advice from his parents, teachers, and school authorities, to whom he was grateful.
To upcoming candidates, he said, “It is good to take advice, learn, and be truthful to yourself. I would advise against examination malpractice because it is a wrong evaluation about you.”
Prof. Opoku-Amankwa said the continuous feature of Ghanaian candidates in the international awards showed the resilience of the country’s educational system, and the hard work of teachers and students in spite of the several challenges in the sector.
He urged teachers, parents, and students to continue to do their best to sustain the achievement as the government took steps to resolve those challenges, especially with the Free Senior High School programme.
He said, apart from improving the educational curriculum, stakeholders in the sector were exploring the possibilities of online examination and were working to put in place the needed infrastructure.
On her part, Mrs Addy-Lamptey said she was excited that for about five years Ghana had been topping the international award and that the Council and its stakeholders would work hard to keep the standard created.
He said the awards had shown the high validity and reliability of the WAEC examination, given that the winners always showed consistency in their future endeavours.
Going forward, she said WAEC would continue to be innovative in order to tackle new challenges in relation to examination malpractice, and called on stakeholders to help protect the sanctity of the examination.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
