The Minister of Education Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has revealed that the government spent an amount of GHS68.5 million to photocopy past questions for candidates of the West African Senior School Examination (WASSCE) between 2020 and 2021 through sole sourcing.
The Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, said this in Parliament on Monday, March 4.
The decision by the government to procure past questions was aimed at guiding the students in their preparations and helping them excel in their upcoming exams.
Dr Adutwum told Parliament that, “To help prepare the final year Senior High School students for the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Ministry has procured 446,954 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) questions from Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit price of GH¢78.00. The procurement will be funded from the Free Senior High School Account.
“Mr. Speaker, in 2020, Government through its efforts to help students amidst COV1D-19 to prepare for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) procured 568,755 past questions for students to try their hands on before sitting for the actual exams.”
He continued: “The Ministry of Education contracted Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery to supply 568,755 WASSCE past questions at a contract price of GHS 33,641,043.75. The procurement of these questions was funded through the Free Senior High School Account and the results of the 2020 WASSCE were tremendous compared to previous years’ WASSCE performance.
“Mr. Speaker, the procurement process for the supply of published textbooks to Basic Schools is currently ongoing. The Ministry placed an advert in the Ghanaian Times on 1st June 2020, where various publishers approved by NaCCA, submitted their books and relevant documents to be taken through a Pre-Qualification procurement process.”
However, the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr Clement Apaak was unhappy with the statement by the Minister.
“Why Government will spend GH¢68,513,455.75 to buy 1,035,733 exam questions through sole source from the same company two years in a row, and agree to pay for the same exam questions at GH¢78 per unit, when it paid GH¢59 per unit only a year ago, a whopping 32% increase, begs the question.
“Interestingly the price of textbooks used by Senior High School students have not increased over the period. So how can the past cost of past exam questions increase by 32% from the same supplier? I will share the content follow-up questions and follow-ups with colleagues at a later date. Stay tuned,” he posted on Facebook.