EXPLOSIVE: Assistant Director of Education Opens Lid On Examination Malpractices And Names Names.

Prof. Naana Opoku Agyemang, Minister of Education

Mr Alexander Atterh Ababio, an Assistant Director of the Ghana Education Service has confessed his personal involvement in examination malpractices.

In an explosive 13 page confessional he names those who took part in alleged conspiracies to cheat in examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council.

The cheating involved teachers writing exams for their students, the bribing of invigilators and obtaining exam papers before the examination day.

In view of the fact that these remain allegations, we have decided to use only the abbreviations of the names of those allegedly involved in the scan.

 The Insight is unable to independently verify all the allegations in the confessional.

Please read on;

Re: "SANCTION TWENTY-EIGHT TEACHERS - W.A.E.C."

I was not surprised at all when I saw the front page headline news caption in the 9^th February, 2013 issue of the Daily Graphic which said, "SANCTION 28 TEACHERS ... For failing to deal with exam malpractices - WAEC' 

The story begins with the West African Examinations Council (WAE.C.) asking the Ghana Education Service (G.E.S.) to take disciplinary action against 28 heads of senior high schools (SHSs), supervisors and invigilators for their actions and inactions that led to examination malpractices in the May/June 2012 .

West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). I must, however, comment on the timing of the publication which was on a Saturday. As a regular viewer of the early morning week-day newspaper review programs - News stand (TV3) and Good Morning, Ghana (Metro TV), I believe W.A.E.C. could have started the debate on this delicate national issue earlier on the afore-mentioned television networks which parade seasoned journalists like Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. and others, if it had made the publication on any week-day. Surely, the Head of Public Affairs of W.A.E.C. knows about these programs on television! 

For the benefit of those who will be recipients of this document on this very important subject of examination malpractice, as seen from my own perspective, I have decided to include excerpts from you publication. I wish to point it out at this embryonic stage that I am not writing this report on the basis of any malice, mischief or sabotage; WAE.C. itself has invited contributions through its own publication from all Ghanaians to help find a lasting solution to this canker.  

I wish also to emphasize here that should any part of this report show the least taint of malice, mischief or sabotage, I am ready to lose my job or even go to jail. However, I have full confidence in whatever I am presenting to you for public consumption, and I am even serving copies to a cross-section of my countrymen and women, including the Ministers of Education, Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Archbishop Nicholas Duncan- Williams of the Christian Action Chapel, who I regard as my 'man of God' for the year 2012, Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, also my media man for the year 2012. I must add that I am serving copies of this report to the Ministers of Education, Gender, Children and Social Protection in view of its sensitive nature and to forestall any form of victimization from my employer, the G.E.S., until the final determination of the matter.

According to your publication, "Already, 3 411 candidates in the May/June 2012 WASSCE have been sanctioned for their involvement in examination malpractices. Out of the number, 1123 candidates were caught taking foreign materials into the examination halls; 127 were found to have been involved in collusion reported by supervisors, while 2 003 collusions were detected in the scripts of the candidates." 

The story further goes on to reveal that, "According to a report on the trends of malpractices released by the W.A.E.C., there were some heads of SHSs, supervisors and invigilators who played various roles resulting in examination malpractices. 

In 2009, 17 heads of SHSs, supervisors and invigilators played various roles leading to examination malpractices, while in 2011, 30 of them were engaged in acts resulting in examination malpractices. 

In 2012, the number of heads, supervisors and invigilators who aided and abetted in examination malpractices was 28. 

The council has submitted the names of the heads and other examination officials to the G.E.S. for sanction." 

 The publication also said inter alia that, "A major challenge faced by the W.A.E.C. over the years is the incidence of malpractices in the conduct of its examinations. In spite of efforts put in place by the council, the G.E.S. and other stakeholders, it has been difficult to reduce the occurrence of malpractices in the examinations to the barest minimum". 

The publication goes on: liAs a means of drawing stakeholders' attention to the problem of examination malpractices and solicit their support in addressing it, the Ghana National Committee of W.A.E.C., at its meeting held on November 7 and 8, 2012, endorsed the recommendation that information on the cases of malpractice be published in the national dailies." 

According to the Head of Public Affairs of W.A.E.C., Mrs. A. T.C, it was expected that the publication would trigger discussion of the issue and possibly-find a solution to the problem.

"We want to name and shame and at the same time get public support to deal with the canker of examination malpractice," she said. 

It is in the light of these tough words from Mrs. A.T.C that I have finally decided to come out of my shell and break my long silence over this issue once and for all because, in my opinion, this monster of a problem has become the biggest in contemporary Ghana ... yes, even bigger than the cocaine menace because an unbelievably large number of Ghanaians, especially teachers, know about it and are involved in it to the neck, but are not ready to stick their necks out for the truth to surface for various reasons which I will be enumerating presently.      

     '

I believe my contribution to the discussion on this canker through this letter, though belated in a way, can go a long way to help find a solution to the problem. I am saying belated because in May 2011, when I had a very good opportunity to expose the head of my school and others involved in what I would describe as the 'mother of all examination malpractices', I hesitated and allowed sleeping dogs to lie because I felt I was in a new environment and hence needed to thread cautiously. I have regretted this inaction since. Certainly, procrastination is the thief of time. 

I wish to organize this report in the following manner: 1. my first personal involvement in examination malpractice at Krobo Girls' SHS (1987); 2. Examination -malpractice at Donkorkrom SHS (1992); 3. Examination mal-practice at SEDASS (2011); 4. Why G.E.S. would not sanction personnel involved in examination malpractice; S. W.A.E.e. is also culpable ... Have too many loose officials. 6. Some causes and side-effects of examination malpractice 

1. My First Personal Involvement in Examination Malpractice at Krobo Girls' SHS (1987)

I arrived in Ghana from Nigeria after a four-year sojourn in that country in January 1987, and was posted to the Krobo Girls' Senior High School, Odumase-Krobo, with effect from 1^st January, 1987, to teach pure science Chemistry and Biology; in addition, I was also responsible for the General Science Chemistry and Biology. 

I was the busiest teacher in the school; but I liked it because it helped to a large extent to forget about a disappointment, born out of my failure to get a permanent visa (green card)to the United States of America in September 1986 to join my ex-wife. I buried my head in my work as I taught my students (all of them boarders) around the clock, sometimes even up to 10.00pm, and on week-ends, too ... free of charge.

I was only 32 years old then, a young man, very much in love with his work. The students simply loved and liked me because of the huge sacrifices I made for them .. Never in the history of the Krobo Girls' SHS had one teacher been engaged to teach two pure science subjects simultaneously. 

The May/June West Africa School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) 1987 arrived! During the examinations, the headmistress of the school, Mrs. A. N. A, was the supervisor for the examinations due to the demise of her assistant, Miss N., a few weeks earlier. One of the daughters of the headmistress was also a candidate in the WASCE 1987. In the course of the examinations, Mrs. A, the supervisor, would leave the examination hall for long periods, and at intermittent intervals, which enabled us, the invigilators, to teach the candidates at will. I remember very well, , had focused most of my attention on the daughter of the headmistress, for obvious reasons - to please my boss. Such naivety paid for it later.

Throughout the examinations, I was made to invigilate such subjects as English language and literature, Mathematics, French and Geography. Mrs. A. knew why she wanted me to invigilate those papers; from my G.E.E. Ordinary level 1974 results, she was aware I had Grade 1 in both English language and Geography; overall, I had Division One Distinction.

 When the results were finally released by the W.A.E.C., it was all smiles for the English language teacher as the candidates had done extremely well in his subject. It was then that I realized what a fool I had been since none of the invigilators was good enough to teach my chemistry and biology. Though the chemistry and biology results were also good, I envied the manner adulations were poured on the English teacher by Mrs. A. From that moment in the staffroom of the Krobo Girls' SHS in September 1987, I took a firm decision against examination malpractice. I vowed never to teach students again in any examination. It was obvious that Mrs. A. had used us because of her daughter.

Ahead of the WASCE 1988, therefore, I staged a one-man campaign in the school against cheating in the examination much against the position of some of my colleagues. This time, there was a level playing field, and I got the best results of my teaching career. All my pure science students passed with Miss P. C., the best student I ever taught throughout my teaching career, and now a pharmacist (she narrowly missed Medical School), scoring grades 1 and 2 in chemistry and biology respectively. 

Success in the WASCE 1988, however, did not come on a silver platter due to my new position on examination malpractice. There were daunting challenges; there were plans to sabotage me. Prior to the practical examination, water supply to the school's laboratory was cut. When I went to the headmistress to report, she only said we could fetch water in buckets to use during the practical examination I Immediately, I had suspected foul play and had insisted that fetching water in buckets would not be ideal, especially with the chemistry practical. She had also stood her ground and would not budge, insisting that we fetched water in buckets. 

When I left Mrs. A.'s residence, frustrated and disappointed, I later came up with an idea that made her feel humiliated. Like British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, delivering one of his famous speeches to his compatriots during the Second World War, I gathered my students and gave them this message: "They have cut water supply to the laboratory; they want to sabotage us; they want you to fail so that they will say that Mr. Ababio is not a good teacher. Your future, as well as my reputation, is at stake. Go to the headmistress' bungalow and tell her that Mr. Ababio says, 'if water is not restored to the laboratory within two days, he is not going to set our practical exanimation," 

Visibly shaken and with fear written on their faces, the girls went and delivered my message; 10 and behold, water started flowing almost immediately I That action I took was the beginning of a strained relationship between me and the headmistress ... till today. In fact, she had called me a mad man and used all sorts of unprintable language against me. I would not blame her. I blamed myself; if I had not made myself cheap by helping students to cheat in an examination, she would not have called me a mad man. I deserved the insult; but I learnt my lesson. 

2. Examination Malpractice at the Donkorkrom Agric. Senior High School (OASS) - 1992

I had found myself at the Donkorkrom Agric. Senior High School (D.A.S.S.) following an open release from St. Augustine's College, Cape Coast, where I had been re-instated after my appointment had earlier been terminated at St. Andrew's College, Ashanti-Mampong, now part of the University of Education, Winneba. My intention this time was to form a partnership with someone and go into a lucrative farming venture, in addition to the teaching. 

I had taken my one-man campaign against examination malpractice to Donkorkrom. In fact, I had now become a crusader against examination malpractice for W.A.E.C. As expected, this campaign was not given any warm reception. In April 1992, a misunderstanding had ensued between me and a younger colleague staff-member, Mr. B. N.A, over a trivial matter. One day, this young man took me by surprise and slapped me directly on the left ear. I had to undergo treatment at the 37 Military Hospital for six months for a damaged ear-drum, from April to October 1992 at my own expense. 

When I reported the case to the local G.N.A.T. for arbitration, strangely enough, I was rather found culpable, and Mr. B.N. A, with the connivance of the headmaster, had his dreams of teaching the candidates finally fulfilled, as I went up and down seeking treatment for a damaged ear at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. However, Mr. B.N.A, I learnt later, was nabbed by the law for impersonation, having been found guilty of using his older brother's GCE Advanced Level certificate to gain admission to the University of Ghana. Unconfirmed reports I had heard also said, Mr. Abonuyi spent some time in jail for this crime; worse still, I heard he could even be dead by now. God is great, indeed and verily, verily, I say unto you, the war against examination malpractice will not be easy. 

3. Examination Malpractice at the S.D.A. Senior High School (SEDASS) - 2011

After more than nine years in the Regional Education Office, the late Mrs. R. B.-B. then the Eastern Regional Director of Education, called me to her office in December 2010, and in the presence of her right-hand man, Mr. N. L.C, also then the Municipal Director of Education, New Juaben Municipality (and now Western Regional Director of Education), told me she was transferring me from the regional office to the S.D.A. Senior High School (SEDASS) with effect from January 1, 2011 and that Mr. N.L C was going to be the acting headmaster of my new school.  

 I was certainly taken aback by this twist of events since a transfer from the regional office to a Grade C school like SEQASS to teach as an ordinary classroom teacher is definitely seen by many as a demotion. Though highly disappointed, I did not fight back; instead, I brought her an X'mas card on Christmas eve, my own birthday, to wish her well as she was also preparing to retire on June 4, 2011.

Though I reported at the SEDASS, the environment alone was distressing enough to cause my blood pressure to become unstable for the next few weeks. From Krobo Girls' SHS to St. Andrew's College (now a university) to Ghana Rubber Estates' Limited (G.R.E.L.) to St. Augustine's College, I now found myself in a school approximately the size of a one-half Olympic -size football arena without a library, a science/home economics block, and a staffroom.  

I immediately started feeling some emptiness within me, especially when I saw teachers sitting under trees that served as a staffroom. I began to suspect foul play and to ask myself why Mrs. B.-B had decided all of a sudden to move me from the regional office to this debilitating environment; I did not have to wait long for an answer to this question.

The WASSCE 2011 soon began, and I was one of the invigilators for the examinations. I reluctantly (emphasis mine for reasons I will give later) accepted to be part of the process. However, events and scenarios that unfolded during the conduct of the examinations convinced me why Mrs. B.-B may have sent me to a school that had just been absorbed into the mainstream public educational system with effect from 1^St September, 2010. (SEDASS had been privately owned and managed by the Seventh-Day Adventist (S.D.A.) Church since the year 2001.)

On April 28, 2011, one of the Core Mathematics papers was being written, and I was one of the invigilators for the paper. At a point during the invigilation, one of my co-invigilators (name withheld) approached me and told me that we were to help the candidates I was surprised; but I was also reluctant, in view of the vow I had made in 1987 never again to help candidates in any examination, coming after that shameful act at the Krobo Girls' SHS, and especially now that I was 56 years old compared to 32 in 1987. When I asked Mr. PL whether the Core Science candidates were also given some assistance, he had replied in the affirmative. I suddenly began to smell, sense and to suspect official interference in the conduct of the examinations. The scenarios that later followed one another after this one confirmed my suspicion.

Moments after that chat with Mr. PL, the supervisor for the examinations, Mr. S. L, also of blessed memory, and a teacher from the Oyoko Methodist Senior High School (OMESS), reported that someone had stolen one question paper from the supplementary envelope. A look on his bemused face showed that the poor man was in real trouble. Obviously, one of the teachers had taken the paper from the supplementary envelope and smuggled it out for someone outside to go and solve the problems and smuggle the answers back to the candidates in the examination hall.  

The missing paper was never found and the fear-gripped supervisor died a few days later, to be replaced by one of the assistant headmasters, who came to continue with the dirty work. Mr. L.'s mysterious death, though a sad one, was a good omen for the school because he did not live to write his report which definitely would have included something on the missing mathematics question paper in the supplementary envelope

On May 9, 2011, a staff meeting took place at the school, with Mr. N. L.C. in attendance. At that meeting, a richly worded citation, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and heard, and which could have been the envy of even the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, was presented to him, in his capacity as the acting headmaster of SEDASS, " for the good work that you have done for the school". What good work? I was soon to find out why the presentation of a citation to an acting headmaster.

On May 13, in just a matter of four days, I was a witness to one of the most shameful spectacles concerning examination malpractice. I was the sole invigilator for the Business Management 2 paper. Outside the examination hall were two business teachers (names withheld) of the school. One of them, Mr. VO, was the substantive teacher for the subject; the other, Mr. GA, was a national service person. In the examination hall, I saw a crumpled piece of paper in the hands of a candidate; it was a sheet from a text-book, and reading it, I saw that it was a piece of literature on the topic, "Functions of the Central Bank," which answered Question 5 of the paper. I took it from him and gave it to the supervisor who could only mildly reprimand the candidate. 

This innocuous warning and the lukewarm attitude of the supervisor was only the impetus for worse things to follow, for within seconds, Mr. GA was in the examination hall, moving from one candidate to another, teaching them. Obviously, this was to make up for the piece of paper (they call it 'ape') I had taken from the candidate, confirming my suspicion that the piece of paper might have been smuggled into the hall by the subject teacher, Mr. VO, himself. 

Shameful, indeed, and perseverance at its negative best In football parlance, you could call it, "If you miss the ball, don't miss the man"

In utter disbelief and in anger, I stormed out of the hall without informing the supervisor, quickly went for my briefcase, and headed for home. You had to be there yourself to witness what followed my action, for as soon as the supervisor noticed my absence, he quickly organized some students in the boarding house to chase after me. It was a real chaotic scene. Eventually, I came back reluctantly, and could you believe it, that Mr. GA was still in the hall teaching the candidates? At this point, I insisted he should leave before I stayed to continue with the invigilation. He then obliged and left.

After this interesting and unbelievable scenario, most of my colleague teachers did not seem to like my attitude. They would have wished that I did what all the others had done, after all...since when you go to Rome, you do what the Romans do. They started to display some negative attitudes towards me and at one time, when I came back to the 'staffroom' after a class, I found my briefcase on the ground instead of on the chair where I had placed it. Feeling insulted and angry, I took the briefcase from the ground and headed for the offices of the W.A.E.C. at Koforidua. I asked to see the regional controller; however, Mr. Offei was a very busy man at the time I got there. He could only listen to the few words I spoke, "I think you saw me invigilating? They cheated." On hearing these words, he had asked me to go and put everything in writing, and addressed to him. But I did not..... until now.

4. Why G.E.S. Would not Sanction Personnel Involved in Examination Malpractice

The Ghana Education Service would not sanction personnel involved in examination malpractice for a myriad of reasons:

Unlike the cocaine business, illegal mining ‘galamsey'), smuggling of cocoa and petroleum products across our borders, child trafficking and child labour, armed robbery, prostitution, and quite recently the upsurge in counterfeit drugs, which are perpetuated by a section of the population one may describe as hard nuts, examination malpractice is much more widespread in the country. In fact, I can say without mincing words and without fear or favour that it sometimes receives covert support from officialdom and that is why W.A.E.C. is finding it difficult to eradicate it and now calls it a canker. Examination candidates, invigilators, supervisors, some heads of schools, some municipal, district directors and even regional directors of education, are culpable of this offence ... or is it crime?

Teachers are compelled to participate in examination malpractice in order to gain the favour of their heads of institutions, who would then reciprocate this shameful gesture by giving them good testimonial for their promotion. Those who are reluctant to do this dirty work would continue to remain at one place till thy kingdom come. Many teachers, who could otherwise contribute to the elimination of this canker by exposing it to W.A.E.C., are silent because of the repercussions they fear they could suffer if they talked. In fact, majority of teachers take part or look on unconcerned as others go round doing the dirty work of teaching candidates in the examination halls.

The modus operandi of most heads of schools these days is to make use of national service personnel. Perhaps, that explained why SEDASS recorded better results in the WASSCE 2012 because there was a marked increase in the number of national service persons in the school compared to the previous year. This year, there are quite a number of national service persons in the school. Usually, what these personnel do is to befriend the female students, promising them they would teach them during the examinations. Mr. GA, the teacher who taught the candidates in the WASSCE 2011 (page 6), was a national service person.

Teachers who are outspoken on this issue of examination malpractice, like I am, face the unfortunate situation of never being promoted, remaining where they are for the rest of their working life with the G.E.S. Technically and logically speaking, I have been promoted only once ever since I joined the service in January 19871 At 58 years old, I am on a rank of Assistant Director II, one rank higher than a newly engaged professional graduate teacher, and on a salary of less than GH 1 200.00 a month .

5. W.A.E.C. is also Culpable Lacks Men of Integrity

In my opinion, the West African Examinations Council should also be made to take part of the blame for the current mess in which examinations are conducted in this country. The W.A.E.E. simply lacks men of integrity who are sometimes afraid to say 'Yes' or 'No' when they are faced with delicate situations.

W.A.E.C. could hire and fire examiners with impunity, like it happens these days in the game of soccer, where the level of professionalism is so high that the least complacency on the part of a coach is met with outright sack. In many cases, the examiner is left very much embarrassed and wounded. To buttress the point I have just made, let us consider the scenario that unfolds below:

I had been an examiner for the W.A.E.C. since 1987, the very year I arrived back home from Nigeria. In August 2006, a couple of weeks before the coordination and conference marking for the WASSCE 2006 began, my team leader, Mr. D., passed on to the next world at the ripe age of 80. Somebody had to replace him. The onus therefore fell on the subject officer to choose the next team leader. Among the five assistant examiners, I was in pole position to take over the responsibility left behind by the affable Mr. D. in view of my long experience. The other assistant examiners, however, had their own ideas. It seemed they had arranged with the chief examiner and the subject officer to see to it that I did not become the next team leader and so they hatched a devilish plot to eliminate me with the tacit connivance of the subject officer; what they did was most shameful. Now, please, read on;

I had arrived from Koforidua and had immediately submitted my marked scripts to the chief examiner for vetting; then I had gone for more scripts. On my return, and after meticulously counting the vetted scripts, I found out that one script was missing from the pack I had originally submitted to the chief examiner. Some said I may have lost the script in transit; others were of the opinion that the candidate may not have written the paper and that the supervisor could have made a mistake by marking her present. I dismissed all these comments as frivolous and insisted that I had marked the script, and that it was among the pack I had submitted for vetting. I had therefore left Accra for Koforidua without the missing script.

On my return to Koforidua, I went to Akim-Oda Attafuah Senior High School, to make my own investigation. I was told the female candidate, of Moslem extraction, did write the paper. At the end of the marking exercise, I went back to W.A.E.C., Accra, and informed them about the findings from my investigations at Akim-Oda, insisting, "I know the script is not missing; it is right here in your offices. You are only doing this to portray me as a useless, careless and irresponsible examiner..... to destroy me .... " I was on fire that day as I confronted the officials of W.A.E.C. Few examiners could do that!

When I was leaving for the W.A.E.C. offices in Accra, I had informed only one person at the Regional Education Office, Mr. C.F., and the only thing I carried along in my portfolio was the Holy Bible. Confident and relaxed as I sat at the reception, I was asked to write a report about the situation; I refused and still insisted that, "The script is here with you at W.A.E.C. I give you up to 4.30pm; if you do not come out with the script by the deadline, I am going to the Police Headquarters to lodge a complaint" Then I began to read my bible, and suddenly, they became afraid. At approximately 4.10pm, I was called to the office of one senior female official, who told me, "Mr. A., we have been able to find the script      " I did not wait for her to finish since I had suspected foul play all along. I had only said a curt 'thank you', and immediately called my colleague at the Regional Education Office to inform him about the victory, leaving the W.A.E.C. officials confused and disorganized.

In December 2006, just when we were about to start with the November/December coordination and conference marking exercise at Koforidua, I was called to the office of Mr. AK., then the Eastern Regional Controller of W.A.E.C. With only a few words, he had fired me. I was given no letter. 

However, due to the mystery surrounding the missing script, though a team leader was finally chosen, it was not from among the rest of the team I was made to leave behind. Though I lost my position as an examiner for so many years, I had fought for and won victory for the TRUTH! The W.A.E.e. simply lacks men of integrity. Messrs K. and B. were the subject officer and chief examiner, respectively, who had created this shameful mess seven years ago.

6. Some Causes and Side-effects of Examination Malpractices on Society

Virtues are no longer respected

Examination malpractice has become part and parcel of our system, whether we like it or not, because persons who are aware of this canker dread having to even broach the subject publicly, like I am doing now, in order not to incur the wrath of those in authority and those who know that examination malpractice exists, but are reluctant or afraid to talk about it, much more to expose it.

In fact, even though I am not yet through with this letter, I already foresee the challenges ahead of me; but I have reached a stage in my life, where I can feel it inside me, that I am no longer afraid of anything; in short, I have nothing more to lose. What do I gain by keeping quiet over such an important issue which borders on the lives of the whole population of Ghana, and especially at a time like this, when the W.A.E.C. itself has given me this great opportunity to speak my mind?

Our contemporary Ghanaian society has now come to accept the juxtaposition of virtues and vices, where sometimes virtues are paradoxically rather punished and vices strangely and pitifully rewarded.

In short, Christianity has simply gone to the dogs because many people who call themselves Christians are rather guiltier and are themselves very much part of this problem. In fact, the name of Jesus is always invoked whenever cheating in examinations is about to take place. I remember quite well when I was invigilating in the WASSCE 2011 at SEDASS, anytime a paper was to begin, one of the candidates was asked to pray on behalf of their colleagues, and there was always that attack on the devil which featured prominently in every prayer. (I believed I was supposed to be the devil, because after a prayer, all the candidates would turn to look in my direction.) In view of this situation, I already see myself on a collision course with the majority of my own countrymen and women who would rather prefer sleeping dogs to lie.

The image of the teacher is tainted

 Examination malpractice has tainted and tarnished the image of the teacher so much so that some important personalities, who had, at one time in their lives been teachers before, are no longer enthused or proud to own up and say, "I was once a teacher." Today, the name teacher stinks because of examination malpractice. A typical example of a V.J.P. who covertly denied having been a teacher before, was Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (N.P.P.) in the last general elections.

 

Ghanaians who were closely monitoring events during the last electioneering campaign by the various political parties, like I was, may have noticed some unusual twist in the position taken by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo. Nana Akufo-Addo's campaign team had run a documentary titled, "Profile of Nana Akufo-Addo" on Ghana Television (GTV) before the Institute of Economic Affairs (I.E.A.) debates in Accra and Tamale. Nana was profiled to have been born at Swalaba (in the heart of traditional Accra), attended the Accra Rowe Road Boys' School and later proceeded to London for further studies. He had returned in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy before entering the University of Ghana.

I had taken particular interest in the documentary in view of the fact that my own late mother, in the late fifties, had fried and sold 'kelewele' at Swalaba. Secondly, the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo once taught at the Accra Academy made me feel proud since 'Accra Aca' is my Alma Mater. Prior to this documentary, Nana had truly shown his good intentions towards his 'adopted Alma Mater' when he had held his last mammoth rally for the 2008 presidential poll on the grounds of the Accra Academy. I have heard from colleague old 'Academicians' that many of my former school mates are sympathizers of the NPP because of this Nana Akufo-Addo-Accra Academy bond.

With eyes and ears firmly glued to my television set, I was all ready to see and hear Nana Akufo-Addo during the first I.E.A. debate in Accra; now, coming face-to-face with his audience, I was expecting Nana to open his mouth and say, " i returned from the U. K. in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy." I was highly disappointed; Nana did not include this in his introduction. Why? Was he ashamed to identify himself with the teacher? Your guess could be as good as mine. The reputation of the teacher has dipped so much because of the canker of examination malpractice.

Analysis of the National Science and Maths Quiz Competition - Standards are falling

Many of us would agree to the fact that standards in education are falling so fast and this has been one main reason for the upsurge in malpractices in public examinations. Students, teachers, parents, etc., all want to reap where they have not sown. Painstakingly, I have been following the performances of participants in the on-going National Science and Maths Quiz competition for SHS science students, and I must say that, so far, I have not been the least impressed with the output levels of most of the competitors. I provide the following results and scores so far, from February 16 (when my attention was first drawn to the competition) to April 6, for your perusal and comments:

February 16: Prempeh College - 69, Accra Academy - 52; February 23: Adisadel College - 63, Kumasi Anglican SHS - 45; March 2: Opoku Ware SHS - 49, Pope John SHS - 44; March 9: Wa St. Xavier - 58, Wesley Girls' - 56; March 16: St. Mary's Girls' SHS - 40, Bawku SHS - 30; March 23: Presby (Legon) - 63, St. Mary's Boys' SHS - 43; March 29: Tamale SHS - 55, Akwamuman SHS - 48; April 6: Kumasi SHS - 50, St. Charles' SHS - 42.

It is quite clear from the above scores that standards in this competition have been falling over the years. From a total of 16 scores, as many as eight schools recorded below 50 points; one school even scored 30 points; only three scored above 60 points, and five schools scored between 50 and 60 points. It was unbelievable, for instance, to see schools like Opoku Ware (though winners), St. Mary's Girls' (though winners) and Pope John, perform well below par, scoring below 50 points; Prempeh were in a class of their own, with Adisadel and Presec (Legon) following closely behind - all three schools scoring above 60 points; Wesley Girls' and Accra Academy could only dole out average performances.

Cheating at the BECE.

In the first place, many students who have gained admissions into SHSs may have reaped where they did not sow since they were taught by their own teachers or invigilators during the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) because of the competitiveness for placement into SHSs. A few weeks ago, I read from this same authoritative newspaper, the Daily Graphic, another publication also on this same subject of examination malpractice in the BECE, and from the information I gathered, the practice is even on a more massive scale than in the WASSCE.

Some teachers are simply not up to the task

I have always maintained that the blame for the below par performances by students these days should not only be placed at the door-step of the student. Some teachers, heads of schools and circuit supervisors, who do not take their work seriously, contribute massively to poor preparation of students towards examinations, leaving them with only one option - to teach or allow the students to do their own thing during public examinations.

As I watched the National Science and Maths Quiz competition, I became aware of the fact that some teachers need to do more than they are doing now. A simple question, for instance, was asked in biology, and bordering on heredity. While one school did justice to the question, scoring all ten points at stake, the other school, had no idea at all- an indication that their biology teacher is either not good enough or is lazy.

The situation at SEDASS:- In spite of a few changes that may have been made in chemistry, I still hold the view that the face of chemistry has not changed in the least. It therefore comes as a surprise to me that in the school where I teach, for instance, an Integrated Science (Chemistry) teacher, who holds a bachelor of science degree in chemistry, had been teaching students that the valency of hydrogen is +1 or -1, of oxygen Is -2, of aluminium is +3, etc ... It is quite clear that this teacher (name withheld) does not know the difference between valency and oxidation number. This same teacher, Mr. B-y, has not been able to teach his students how to balance chemical equations; obviously, he does not know it himself.

Though, I have made protestations over this issue with the acting headmaster, the municipal and regional directors of education, for investigations to be carried out into the authenticity of the academic qualification of this teacher, there has not been any favourable feed-back. The paradox of the whole matter is that, I have rather received a query for being too officious. At this stage, I throw the ball in the court of the Ghana Association of Science Teachers (G.A.S.T.) to come to the aid of the unfortunate students of SEDASS, whose only option may be to rely on external help by way of examination malpractices during the upcoming WASSCE 2013 because their minds have been poisoned by a teacher who himself does not know his stuff. There may be many like this in our schools. And, they are always the first to join any strike action because they know they cannot teach!

Our educational system is producing below par academic graduates.

 One very noticeable effect of examination malpractice is the large number of semi-literate graduates who cannot even speak or write good English. It is an undeniable fact that many of the products of our current educational system are out of their depth when it comes to knowledge about the work they do. Recently, I sent out my first year Integrated Science (Physics) students to do a project work on scientific measuring instruments. They were to visit the hospitals, police stations, etc., to find out the specific names of the instruments used to do certain measurements such as the blood pressure of a patient, the alcohol level in the breath of a driver, the allowable speed limit for a speeding vehicle, etc. Though many of them did not partake in the exercise, the few that did, came out with different answers with the excuses that many of the police personnel and health workers they consulted did not themselves even know the names of the instruments they have been working with I found out same when I also went on my rounds. Two police personnel I met (a male and a female), gave different answers to the same question. A big shame, indeed! I was not surprised since these days, admissions into our police, army, nurses training colleges, etc., are not based on merit, but on the ability to pay.

The wrath of God is against those who indulge in examination malpractices. 

The attempt by Mr. PL to get me involved in the WASSCE 2011 cheating during one of the mathematics papers (as I have earlier mentioned on page 5), still gives me room to suspect that Mrs. B.-B and Mr. N. L.C. could have been behind the dirty plot. Unfortunately, Mrs. B.-B. is dead; but Mr. N.L. C. must come clean and explain why he accepted a citation for no work done.

If, indeed, Mr. O. took action on the report I made to him concerning the mass cheating in the WASSCE 2011, then that could have been the reason why the school's 1o" Anniversary and 1^st Speech and Prize-Giving Day celebration had to be postponed for one whole year from November 2011 to 2012. And I take all the pride in causing that havoc because I have always believed that Mrs. B.-B.and Mr. N. L.C. plotted and sent me to SEDASS to help students cheat in the examinations ....... something I had vowed never to do again, since no condition is permanent.

Mr. S. L., the substantive supervisor for the WASSCE 2011 at SEDASS, died a few days after a mathematics question paper vanished from the supplementary envelope. I believe Mr. L. himself could have averted this mishap to avoid the anger of God if he had remained sincere to his work as a supervisor; but he did not for he, like his successor, compromised the examinations.

Earlier on page 4, I talked about how a colleague teacher had slapped me at Donkorkrom Agric. SHS; he had gone ahead to teach the candidates writing the WASCE 1991, while I made trips to and from Accra for the treatment of a damaged ear-drum. When the wrath of God descended on Mr. A. he had nowhere to hide. He died miserably.

I would be the first person to admit that I brought the wrath of God against myself when I aided the students of the Krobo Girls' SHS to cheat in the WASCE 1987. I could not even gain the support of the person whose daughter I openly helped in the examinations. Today, some of these very students classroom teacher, receiving queries at the age of 57! What a curse?

DECLARATION:

I hereby declare at this stage, and with unequivocal intention that I am ready to place my job on the line for the truth, if the West African Examinations Council and the Ghana Education Service will agree to fully investigate all the allegations that I have made against such persons as the late Mrs. B.-B., the former Eastern regional director of education, Mr. N.L. C., former acting headmaster of SEDASS, and now the Western regional director of education, the supervisor of the WASSCE 2011 at SEDASS together with Messrs PL, GA and VO, all teachers of the school, that the examinations conducted in the school that year were compromised.

While the allegations I have made against the afore-mentioned individuals are being investigated, I pray that the Minister of Education, the Minster for Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, ensure that no form of victimization by my employer, the G.E.S. (as always happens in the case of teachers fighting for their rights) is entertained until the final determination of this matter.

Thank you.

ALEXANDER ATTERH ABABIO
(Assistant Director II)

Cc: The Minister of Education, Accra

The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Accra

The Director-General, Ghana Education Service, Accra

The Commissioner, CHRAJ, Accra

The General Secretary, Christian Council of Ghana, Accra

The Director, National Service Scheme, Accra

The President, Ghana Association of Science Teachers, Accra
The Editor, Daily Graphic, Accra

The Archbishop, Christian Action Chapel, Accra
Diplomat K. B. Asante, c/o Daily Graphic, Accra

Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor, The Insight, Accra

EDITORIAL

INVESTIGATE

Mr. Alexander Atterh Ababio, an Assistant Director of Education has confessed to his involvement in examination malpractices.

In a 13 page confessional he has named senior personnel in both the Ghana Education Service and the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC). Who have been accomplices in the fraud.

The Insight is unable to independently verify the allegations.

However, these are very serious allegations which should not be ignored.

 The Insight calls on the relevant organizations to investigate these allegations to establish the full facts for informed official and unofficial reaction.

These serious allegations should not be allowed to blow with the wind.

Margaret Thatcher’s criminal legacy

Margaret Thatcher

 By Finian Cunningham

Hours after the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the history books are being re-written and the beatification of the Iron Lady is well underway.

Current British premier David Cameron praised Lady Thatcher for having “saved Britain” and for making the has-been colonial power “great again”. 

Tributes poured forth from French and German leaders, Francoise Hollande and Angela Merkel, while US President Barack Obama said America had lost a “special friend”.

Former American secretary of state Henry Kissinger and former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev also lamented the loss of “an historic world figure”. Polish ex-president Lech Walesa hailed Margaret Thatcher for having brought down the Soviet Union and Communism.

Such fulsome praise may be expected coming from so many war criminals. But it is instructive of how history is written by the victors and criminals in high office. Obama, Cameron, Hollande and Merkel should all be arraigned and prosecuted for war crimes in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia and Mali, among other places. Kissinger has long evaded justice for over four decades for his role in the US genocide in Southeast Asia during the so-called Vietnam War in which over three million people were obliterated in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. 

The British state is to give Thatcher, who died this week aged 87, a full military-honours funeral. The praise, eulogies, wreaths and ceremonies are all self-indictments of association with one of the most ruthless and criminal political figures in modern times.

So, here is a people’s history of Thatcher’s legacy.

She will be remembered for colluding with the most reactionary elements of Rupert Murdoch’s squalid media empire to launch a war over the Malvinas Islands in 1982, a war that caused hundreds of lives and involved the gratuitous sinking of an Argentine warship, the Belgrano, by a British submarine. 

By declaring war, rather than conducting political negotiations with Argentina over Britain’s ongoing colonial possession of the Malvinas, Thatcher salvaged her waning public support in Britain, and the bloodletting helped catapult her into a second term of office in Downing Street. Her political “greatness” that so many Western leaders now eulogize was therefore paid in part by the lives of Argentine and British soldiers, and by bequeathing an ongoing source of conflict in the South Atlantic. 

It wasn’t just foreigners that Thatcher declared war on. Armed with her snake-oil economic policies of privatisation, deregulation, unleashing finance capitalism, pump-priming the rich with tax awards subsidised by the ordinary working population, Thatcher declared war on the British people themselves. 

She famously proclaimed that “there was no such thing as society” and went on to oversee an explosion in the gap between rich and poor and the demolition of social conditions in Britain. That legacy has been amplified by both successive Conservative and Labour governments and is central to today’s social meltdown in Britain - more than two decades after Thatcher resigned. 

Laughably, David Cameron, a protégé of Thatcher, claims that she “saved” Britain. The truth is Thatcher accelerated the sinking of British capitalism and society at large. What she ordered for the Belgrano has in a very real way come to be realised for British society at large. 

During her second term of office in the mid-1980s, the Iron Lady declared war on the “enemy within”. She was referring to Britain’s strongly unionised coal-mining industry. Imagine declaring war on your own population. 

That is a measure of her pathological intolerance towards others who did not happen to share her obnoxious ideological views - ideological views that have since become exposed as intellectually and morally bankrupt. 

For over a year around 1984, her Orwellian mindset and policies starved mining communities in the North of England into submission. Her use of paramilitary police violence also broke the resolve and legitimate rights of these communities. Miners’ leader Arthur Scargill would later be vindicated in the eyes of ordinary people, if not in the eyes of the mainstream media. 

Britain’s coalmines were systematically shut down, thousands of workers would be made unemployed, and entire communities were thrown on the social scrap heap. All this violence and misery was the price for Thatcher’s ideological war against working people and their political rights. 

The class war that Thatcher unleashed in Britain is still raging. The rich have become richer, the poor decidedly more numerous and poorer. The decimation of workers’ rights and the unfettered power given to finance capital were hallmarks of Thatcher’s legacy and are to this day hallmarks of Britain’s current social decay. But that destructive legacy goes well beyond Britain. The rightwing nihilistic capitalism that Thatcher gave vent to was and became a zeitgeist for North America, Europe and globally. The economic malaise that is currently plaguing the world can be traced directly to such ideologues as Margaret Thatcher and former US President Ronald Reagan. 

A final word on Thatcher’s real legacy, as opposed to the fakery from fellow war criminals, is her role in Ireland’s conflict. Her epitaph of “Iron Lady” is often said with admiration or even sneaking regard for her supposed virtues of determination and strength. In truth, her “iron” character was simply malevolent, as can be seen from her policies towards the Irish struggle for independence from Britain.

 In 1981, 10 Irish republican prisoners, led by a young Belfast man by the name of Bobby Sands, died from hunger strikes. The men died after more than 50 days of refusing prison food because they were demanding to be treated as political prisoners, not as criminals. Thatcher refused to yield to their demands, denouncing them as criminals and callously claiming that they “took their own lives”. 

No matter that Bobby Sands had been elected by tens of thousands of Irish voters to the British House of Parliament during his hunger strike. He was merely a criminal who deserved to die, according to the cold, unfeeling Thatcher. 

As a result of Thatcher’s intransigence to negotiate Irish rights, the violence in the North of Ireland would escalate over the next decade, claiming thousands of lives. As with Las Malvinas dispute with Argentina, Thatcher deliberately took the military option and, with that, countless lives, rather than engage in reasoned, mutual dialogue. Her arrogance and obduracy blinded her to any other possibility. 

As the violence gyrated in Ireland, Thatcher would also embrace the criminal policy of colluding with pro-British death squads. Armed,funded and directed by British intelligence, these death squads would in subsequent years kill hundreds of innocent people - with the knowledge and tacit approval of Lady Thatcher. It was a policy of British state terrorism in action, sanctioned by Thatcher. One of those victims was Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane, who was murdered in February 1989. He was shot 12 times in the head in front of his wife and children by a British death squad, after the killers smashed their way into the Finucane home on a Sunday afternoon. 

Thus whether in her dealings with Las Malvinas row with Argentina, the British working people or Irish republicans, Margaret Thatcher was an intolerant militarist who always resorted to demagoguery, violence and starvation to get her political way. She was a criminal fascist who is now proclaimed to be a national hero. 

Reports this week say that Thatcher died with Alzheimer’s, the brain-degenerating disease in which the patient loses their faculty for memory. Western leaders, it seems, would also like to erase public memory of Thatcher’s criminal legacy. 

Penny Wise, Gas Foolish

Europe is on the verge of making a historic mistake, one that would compound the growing sense of European decay and collapse. The issue involves Cyprus, but it has nothing to do with the divisive politics of the country’s bailout terms – though Europe’s approach to that problem will play a key role in determining the outcome.

What is at stake for Europe is the energy deal of the century. No one can yet say how much oil and gas lies within Cyprus’s territorial waters, but there are strong indications that it could make a huge contribution to the European Union’s energy needs. According to recent news reports, the Aphrodite field alone could eventually supply 40% of the EU’s current natural-gas consumption.

Clearly, the wrong bankers are addressing the Cypriot debt problem. A team of investment bankers who know how to structure long-term deals would be far better than the bean-counting officials of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

The island of Cyprus is the legendary birthplace of the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite, and the offshore block named after her is just the first of 12 earmarked for exploration. It lies close to Israel’s Leviathan gas field, whose name gives an idea of how much energy lies beneath the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and it is also not very far from the Egyptian coastline, where Shell already has three major projects.

The Aphrodite field’s known oil and gas reserves are reckoned to be worth €80 billion ($103 billion). But realizing that value is a long-term proposition. More immediately, to get the gas to market in Europe and elsewhere, a gas liquefaction plant costing about €10 billion needs to be built, and Israeli investors have already expressed interest.

The sheer size of Cyprus’s likely energy wealth, and the funding needed to develop it, dwarfs the country’s current financial woes. Yes, Cyprus needs €17 billion to remain in the eurozone, whereas its annual GDP is just €23 billion. But these figures have to be placed in the context of the EU’s gloomy overall energy picture – something that the ongoing debt negotiations have failed to do.

If Russia’s Gazprom eventually strikes a bargain with the Cypriot government in exchange for €6 billion in emergency bailout funds, Europe’s dependence on Russia for its energy will increase substantially. As it is, half of EU countries’ energy supplies are imported, and that share will probably rise to 70% by 2030, giving Russia even more power to turn off the tap at will.

Europe also has the double problem of striving to green its economies (making gas a favorite industrial and domestic energy source) while improving its economic competitiveness in a world where shale gas promises to cut North American electricity costs by half relative to Europe. And, to put Cyprus’s current debt problems in broader perspective, the costs of modernizing and streamlining Europe’s aging energy infrastructure over the next 30 years or so are estimated at around €20 trillion.

The recriminations now flying between Nicosia and Berlin – with contributions from the EU in Brussels, the ECB in Frankfurt, and the IMF in Washington – are obscuring the big picture. Of course the Cypriot authorities have been operating a dubious banking sector for many years, with the clear intention of drawing in Russian and other depositors whose funds would not withstand closer scrutiny elsewhere. 

And, yes, the German-backed haircut for holders of Greek government bonds unintentionally – and therefore carelessly – hit vulnerable Cypriot banks very hard. The lesson to be drawn is one that everyone now knows: the eurozone’s financial regulation and supervision have been lamentable.

The question that Europe’s policymakers must quickly address is how to extend the deadlines on Cypriot debt to gain enough time to formulate a more strategic approach. Even if Cyprus were to come up empty in the 11 unexplored blocks off its southern coast, the Aphrodite field contains more than enough energy reserves to cover the country’s short-term indebtedness.

More broadly, with global energy demand set to rise by roughly one-third between now and 2030, investing in Cyprus looks a lot more attractive than what is on offer elsewhere in Europe. The EU must not allow this opportunity to slip away.