WASSCE Riots: Was the President misinformed on GES directive to fourteen students?

Following the directive by President Akufo-Addo for the Ghana Education Service to recall some fourteen students who were reportedly sacked for various acts of exam malpractice and insubordination, it is turning out that the President might have been either ill-informed or misinformed on the issue.

A statement from the presidency on Sunday, August 9, 2020, announced that the president has asked the Education Minister to engage the GES on mitigating the punishment for the students.

“The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the Minister for Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh to engage the Ghana Education Service to reconsider its decision to ban some fourteen(14) dismissed final year Senior High School students from taking the ongoing West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination”.

"The President believes that everyone deserves a second chance in life, and is thus, hopeful that the students will be allowed by the GES to take their final examinations as scheduled," the first and third paragraphs of the statement read.

But according to the Director-General of the GES, Professor Opoku-Amankwa, his outfit has not banned anyone from writing the ongoing exam.

Speaking on Peace FM, Professor Opoku-Amankwa clarified their statement was specific on the students being barred from writing the exams in their schools.

He explains that this is due to fears that the students could further destroy school properties and attack persons should they be allowed to write in the schools.

“The President’s letter says we should allow the students to write. In our statement, we did not say we’ll not allow the students to write. We said we won’t allow him to write in our schools. The exam is supervised by WAEC. They gave you index numbers and we gave you a centre and you’ve come to destroy properties at the centre. We cannot tell you not to write the exam. They can write the exam but not in our schools”.

This statement by Professor Opoku-Amankwa appears to be inconsistent with the initial release that had the punishment for the fourteen students.

“The Following students have been dismissed from the schools and barred from writing the current examination in the schools”, part of the statement reads.