Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu Kotoe has said “it is wrong” for the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to purchase and distribute examination past questions to final year free Senior High School (SHS) students across the country.

Head of Public Affairs at the Ministry of Education, Vincent Ekow Assafuah announced on Tuesday, 26 November 2019 that the ministry had purchased 400,000 sets of WASSCE past questions from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for distribution to all final year SHS students to enable them prepare for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

According to Mr Assafuah, the distribution of the past questions to final year students is geared towards ensuring the success of candidates in the examination and education.

He told Accra-based Citi FM that: “It is geared towards improving the kind of education that we have and the learning outcomes that we have been receiving from WAEC over the years. It is the commitment or it is the anticipation of government that we are going to have our first set of free senior high school education students which we enrolled in 2017 who are going to write their WASSCE in 2020. And we are hoping that we should be able to support them so that they will come out with flying colours.

“So, what we have been able to procure for them, that is the 400,000 sets of pass questions that we have are going to be given to all Senior High School students is supposed to help them, to guide them as to whatever they are going to learn so that they will pass their examination and come out with flying colours.”

However, the ranking member on Parliament’s Education Committee has described the action by the Ministry of Education and the GES as wrong.

Mr Nortsu Kotoe said the role of the Ministry of Education is to ensure that learning and teaching materials are provided to teachers and students to enable them prepare for examination and has, therefore, described the action by the Ministry as wrong.

He noted: “Yours is to provide the learning and teaching materials for teachers to teach and prepare students for the examination. Are they preparing them only for examination or life? They must prepare them to think and answer questions, not to let them have questions in advance and tell them what answers to provide and when they get to the examination hall, they get disappointed. It is wrong for the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to have done that.”