Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the Minister of Education, has said Ghana’s educational system was progressing, and the challenge was for stakeholders to remain active in encouraging students to sustain the light, and aim for excellence.

She said contrary to the perception that the system was failing, there were clear indications that much was being achieved through the numerous interventions and policies being put in place by government to improve upon the quality of standards.

She said the improved results of the 2015 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) over that of 2014, confirms the high quality of education in the country, indicating that the strategies put in place in the educational system were producing desired results.

Prof Opoku Agyemang, who was addressing participants at the Distinction Awards ceremony organised by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in Accra, called for the right kind of attitude from both stakeholders and the students themselves towards problem solving in the educational sector.

This, she said, would help in deepening the confidence level in the sector and prevent others from casting doubts about the quality of education.

She congratulated the awardees for sweeping all the top four prizes to make history for Ghana by winning for four consecutive times.

She said their achievements must encourage other students to emulate by spending more time with their books, rather than allowing themselves to be attracted to other unprofitable things.

The Minister also commended WAEC for instituting the Distinction Awards Scheme as the preliminary stage of the International Excellence Awards, under the Endowment Fund, for candidates who excelled in the May/June 2015 WASSCE.

She said the awards were meant to reward outstanding performance of school candidates at the WASSCE in order to inculcate in the youth the virtues of hard work, discipline and honesty.

She also applauded the various institutions for their supportive roles in ensuring the attainment of excellence and improving the quality of education in the country.

Prof Opoku Agyemang said the brilliant performances of all the top four winners who were from the Wesley Girls High School, shows the tremendous efforts and support of the students, alumni, the teaching and non-teaching staff as well as parents.

She said “we need to raise the reputation of many more schools in this country…”, saying government through her Ministry would continue to put in place the necessary interventions and policies to ensure that the right environment for quality teaching and learning was created in schools at all levels.

She also urged all heads of schools, supervisors and invigilators to play their roles as expected, as the cycle of examinations for 2016 commences.

According to her the evidence provided by the cancellation of the results of 12,754 candidates at the May/June 2015 WASSCE and at the Basic Education Certificate of Examination and several others at the November/December examinations, attests to the fact that some school authorities and examination functionaries were relaxed in their duties and this is a great concern.

She urged WAEC to implement fully in the 2016 examinations, the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software, which was piloted last year, but was shelved to enable more sensitisation to be taken.

Reverend Dr Sam Nii Nmai Ollennu, Head of the National Office, said the IDP software would enable the Council to detect cheating in objective tests which hitherto went undetected.

Source: http://news.peacefmonline.com/