Police Arrest 24 People for BECE Leakage

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police has so far arrested 24 pesons for their alleged involvement in the leakage of question papers of the annulled Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) organised by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC).

They include two typesetters and three security men of Commercial Associates, printers of the examination papers and five personnel of the WAEC Security Printing Division.

The rest are a teacher and 13 candidates from various schools in Accra.

Mr Ernest Owusu-Donkor, Officer in charge of the Rapid Response Squad of the CID, told the Ghana News Agency in an exclusive interview that the students and teacher were found with photocopies of the exact question papers before the commencement of the examinations.

Some of the schools involved in Accra include North Ridge Lyceum, SNAPS JSS, PRESEC JSS, Legon, Independence Avenue JSS and Presby Primary JSS at Nii Boye Town.

The rest are Institute of Divine Education, Korle Gonno, Additrom Preparatory School and Kinbu JSS.

Mr Owusu-Donkor said that the leakage, according to preliminary Police investigations, was on a massive scale across the country.

"As many as six students were apprehended in SNAPS JSS alone," he said.

Some of questions papers retrieved included Pre-technical Skills, Mathematics, English Language, Religious and Moral Education and Science.

Mr Owusu-Donkor said the Police would interrogate heads of the institutions that had been implicated while an intensive search was underway for the prime suspect whose name is being withheld for security reasons.

Mr Owusu-Donkor, who is an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said the Police had closed in on the perpetrators and after thorough investigations dockets on the case would be forwarded to the Attorney General's Department for advice.

The Ministry of Education last Friday cancelled the results of eight out of 10 subjects in this year's BECE.

Candidates are to re-sit the affected papers in early July at the expense of WAEC and the designated printing firm.

The Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) has meanwhile welcomed the decision by government to cancel the 2002 BECE.

GNAPS in a statement signed in Accra by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, President, said the decision taken by government was the best option "under the peculiar

circumstances to repair the serious damage to the credibility of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC)."

GNAPS explained that the re-sit would create a fair assessment to enable only qualified candidates to enter second cycle schools.

It said the association was happy that the re-sit would be free-of-charge to all the affected candidates.

The Association said it sympathises with innocent candidates, who were affected by this "criminal act" and appealed to them to accept the challenge in good faith and re-sit.

The statement said, the President as a goodwill gesture and sympathy towards students has appealed to all Junior Secondary School Managements not to charge any extra fees for the impending revision classes for the re-sit.

The statement said after all, the students were permitted to continue with their classes after the BECE until the end of the academic year in July.

GNAPS expressed the hope that JSS students would continue to avail themselves of this opportunity granted them.

The Association asked out-going JSS students, who have arrears of school fees to make all efforts to settle such debts fully before the time of the re-write.