Mass Failure In WASSCE 2011 In Mathematics...

Thirty-three thousand seven hundred and eight candidates out of 147,227 candidates who wrote this year's West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the country failed in Mathematics.

This implies that those candidates, representing 22.89 per cent of the total number of candidates, failed to score between grades Al and E8.

According to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) grading system, grades between A1 and C6 are from Excellent to Credit, while grades D7 and E8 are passes.

Statistics on the four core subjects- Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Integrated Science - in the 2011 WASSCE made available to the Daily Graphic by WAEC indicated that 64,665 candidates; representing 43.92 per cent, had Al to C6 in Mathematics, while 47,831 candidates, representing 32.48 per cent, scored D7 and E8.

For English Language, 112,020 (76 per cent) of the 147,376 candidates who wrote the paper scored between Al and C6, while 27,252 of them, representing 18.48 per cent, had the pass grades of D7 and E8, with 5,733 (3.89 per cent) of them failing in it.

In Social Studies, 121,323 (82.36 per cent) out of the 147,295 candidates had from Al to C6; 21,117 (14.32 per cent) candidates scored between D7 and E8, while 4,691, constituting 3.18 per cent, failed.

In the case of Integrated Science, 62,014 (42.10 per cent) of the 147,296 candidates who wrote the paper scored between Al and C6, while 57,207 (38.83 per cent) had D7 and E8, with 27,488, representing 8.66 per cent, failing.

The core subjects are mainly used by tertiary institutions for the admission of students to those institutions.

According to the Principal Public Affairs Officer of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, the difference between the overall total number of candidates and the number of candidates who wrote the core subjects was due to absenteeism on the part of candidates and the inability of the visually impaired to write some of the core papers.

With regard to examination malpractice, the council said there was “collusion and mass cheating as a result of poor supervision and invigilation at some centres, bringing of foreign materials such as mobile phones, prepared notes and printed materials into the examination hall, seeking/receiving help from non-candidates such as invigilators, supervisors and teachers; failure to complete in full the cover pages of their answer booklets, tearing parts of their question papers and answer booklets and registration of ‘unqualified’ candidates by some schools.

“These malpractices led to the cancellation of 4,448 subject results, 63 entire results, cancellation of the entire results of 118 ‘unqualified’ candidates and the annulment of the entries of 346 ‘unqualified’ candidates. The entire results of candidates in two schools are still being withheld as investigations continue into the registration of candidates who were not their bona fide students.

“School authorities who connived with their candidates to cheat or were lax in their duties as examination officials will be reported to the Ghana Education Service for sanctioning,” WAEC said.