Why the Obuasi Basic Schools common term exams must cease!

Last December, public basic schools in Obuasi had their end of term exams questions coming from the Municipal Education Office which is headed by Nana Baffour Awuah. Obuasitoday.com revealed how the exams were organised and the financial benefit that the Municipal Director of Education and heads of schools gained, thanks to a whistle blower.

This time, we are going to look at why it was a wrong idea for Nana Baffour to call for the examination and why it must stop. Thanks to some teachers in the Municipality, Obuasitoday.com presents to you these reasons;


1. Students interest not considered
the examination was compulsory and students were made to answer questions based on the common scheme of work, neglecting the fact that some students are slow learners and teachers might not complete the topics allocated to them for a particular term from the Education office.

The topics for a year were equally divided for the three terms and teachers had to complete the topics within the term. It placed pressure on teachers and students who had no choice but to adhere to the order from above.


2. Puts pressure on parents
In the common examination, parents are made to pay more than they would have paid for examination in their individual schools. For example, last term parents paid 7 cedis for their wards in JHS and 5 cedis for their wards in the primary school but previously JHS students were paying between GHc3.5 to GHc5.0.


3. Questions not standard and contained errors.
Obuasitoday.com were shown samples of the questions which contained many errors but couldn’t be corrected. Some questions were also repeated. Some teachers also claimed the answer sheets that the office sent to the schools weren't suffiecient as they got finished before the completion of the last paper. Students had to buy official papers to answer the questions on.


4. Incomplete marking schemes from Office
Some of the subject teachers received no or imcomplete marking scheme from the office which forced some teachers to prepare their own marking schemes, putting extra pressure on those teachers.


5. The common exams organised was for no other reason than financial, obuasitoday.com can confirm. The ‘Boss’ immediately allocated part of the printing fees for the heads of schools when he was challenged on it by the heads in order to shut them down and move on with his plan. This showed his determination to carry out the examination irrespective of the inconveniences it would cause. Heads of schools were not told how much was going to be used for the printing of the questions and how much he was going to ‘pocket’. No accountability measures were put in place and little is known on whose account the money is kept.

In 2009, the Municipal Director of Education at the time deducted certain amounts from the Schools’ capitation grants, claiming to use it to provide examination questions for the three terms ahead but in less than a term, he was transferred from the Municipality and till now, the money hasn't been found or retrieved.

The Municipal Director of Education, Nana Baffour Awuah and his predecessors before him, warned both heads of schools and teachers not to speak to the media.

Obuasitoday.com has on several occasions tried to speak to the ‘Boss’ but to no avail.