The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr Clement Apaak has said that if the government fails to settle its debt owed to the West African Examination Council (WACE), the exams body will not be able to mark the papers of this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and grade the pupils.
To that end, he has asked the government to urgently pay WACE to enable it to carry out its function of grading the students.
Dr Apaak said it was surprising to hear that the government paid a paltry GHS10 million out of the GHS70 million owed to the exams body.
WAEC revealed that the government has only paid 15 percent out of the total arrears owed them.
A Member of the Communication Unit of WAEC, Mr. John Kapi revealed that the government has given GHS10 million, constituting 15 percent of the total arrears.
“So far for BECE 2021 and 2022 yes we have received the arrears but for this year 2023 we received about 10.5 million Ghana cedis that is 15 percent of the total payment due. So obviously there are still some arrears that should be settled. They promise off course that they are going to send some money to us so we are waiting,” Mr. Kapi stated.
“So far what we’ve been able to do is the printing for what we are conducting. But for the marking and final processing of the result, we will have to get some more money otherwise sections of the process will suffer,” he added.
Speaking on this matter on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Monday, August 8, Dr Apaak said “This never came to the committee but those of NDC members in Parliament we raised the issue by addressing the press in Parliament calling attention to the government’s indebtedness to WACE and outstanding areas going back to last year.
The government made us aware that it has made provision as announced by Deputy Minister of Education Rev Ntim Fordjuor for WAEC to be able to undertake its obligations.
“So it comes to us as a shock and surprise that WAEC is now telling us that contrary to what the government had indicated, only a paltry 10 million out of about 70 million has been provided.
“So we will like to call on the government to immediately make the resources available to WAEC because if that does not happen after the papers have been written they wouldn’t be marked and they wouldn’t be grading. This is a very dire situation that calls for urgent attention.”
Source:Fiilafmonline/3News
