By Sulaiman Jalloh

Amidst public outcry for over fifty-five thousand students and about four hundred schools reportedly left out of the West African Secondary Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE) 2024, it has been classified as there is a match playing between the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Schools Education (MBSSE), the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Parliament of Sierra Leone.

Citizens, mainly parents of the school going pupils, have raised concerns regarding the credibility of selection and omission of students along the process.

Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party, representing Kambia district, who initially raised the issue via a viral video on social media, suggested that there is a need for proper collaboration between WAEC and MBSSE. According to him, during the first committee engagement with MBSSE and WAEC, it was confirmed that WAEC received a total of one hundred and seventy-six thousand kids from the Ministry; twenty-eight thousand from private schools, but that the examination body left out fifty-five thousand candidates and about four hundred schools for this year’s exams.

“This is why I am saying we need to play the final match between WAEC and Ministry,” he said, adding that he has researched and found out that there are schools that went through the school census which according to him some schools registered sixty candidates for the WAEC exams but later submitted two-hundred students for the exams, asserting that there are some illegal arrangements that exist in schools that have led to the current situation.

He cited that there are government and government-assisted schools without the West African Examination Council code.

“There are approved schools which don’t have WAEC code and they will look for the closet school with WAEC code and register their kids under that school,” the lawmaker averred.

He however suggested that the country take a second batch of WASSCE exam, disclosing that the parliamentary committee on education had already asked the Basic Education Minister to do a correspondence to WAEC for a new schedule of WASSCE in August this year.

Ag. Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Sengepoh Solomon Thomas, reminded the gathering about the danger of substance abuse and its adverse effects on the nation, including education. “If we frustrate our children, some of them might find themselves going back in the wrong way,” he said.

Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Friday, April 26TH, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)