Govt absorbs WASSCE examination fees of final year students
The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has pledged to absorb the full examination fees of all students sitting for the 2020 West African Senior School Certification Examination (WASSCE).
According to him, that would help alleviate plight on parents and help the students right their examination with a serene mind.
Speaking in a televised address to update the country on the fight against COVID-19, the president indicated that a total of 318,837 students would benefit from the government intervention plan which was estimated to cost GH¢ 75.4 million.
“For the first time in our nation’s history, Government will absorb the WASSCE examination fees of the 313,837 SHS 3 students who will sit for the exam.
GH¢75.4 million will be spent on this. These SHS 3 students, also referred to by some as the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’, are the first group of beneficiaries of Government’s Free SHS policy to sit the WASSCE exams,” he said.
This year’s WASSCE, according to President Akufo-Addo would take place from August 3, 2020 after six weeks of massive studies.
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) which conducts the WASSCE concurrently in anglophone West Africa Countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia announced on March 20, 2020 that it was indefinitely suspending the annual exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, upon discussions with government following the country’s decision to ease COVID-19 restrictions and allow final year students return to school, it was agreed that the exams would be held independently for Ghana.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo noted that adequate measures were in place to ensure the safety of students against COVID-19.
He said the schools have been fumigated and disinfected, stressing that protective equipments would be made available to teaching and non-teaching staff.
“All 1,167 SHS in the country have been fumigated and disinfected. Each student, teaching and non-teaching staff, invigilator and school administrator, numbering 800,000, will be provided with three pieces of reusable face masks, i.e. two being provided tomorrow, and the third within a fortnight,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
He appealed to parents to provide face masks for their wards although the government would provide students with nose masks.
The president mentioned that his outfit was making available veronica buckets, hand sanitisers among other sanitary materials as school reopens tomorrow.
“A total of 18,000 Veronica Buckets, 800,000 pieces of two hundred millilitre sanitizers, 36,000 rolls of tissue paper, 36,000 gallons of liquid soap, and 7,200 thermometer guns have been distributed,” he added.
Nana Akufo-Addo encouraged the students to learn hard to attain greater heights in life.
BY JOYCELINE NATALLY CUDJOE
