By: Ilyasa Baa
Reports from the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education have revealed that two thousand five hundred Senior Secondary pupils will not take the 2023 WASSCE slated for next month, the reason being their details were not submitted by Principals for the capture of the Portal run by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
All six schools that refused to upload details of their candidates are said to be located in the Western Urban.
The Portal had been opened and shot down four times for Principals to do the uploading since September 2022. According to the Ministry, they had dispatched a team to Nigeria to plead with the Council to reopen the Portal at one point leading to some schools in the provinces rushing down to Freetown to rectify the issue, unlike the six schools who failed to rectify their issues with the Ministry.
The National Coordinator of the Civil Right Coalition, Alphonso Manley has said blame for the WASSCE should be apportioned to the principals, not the Ministry or WAEC which he said, made a frantic effort to ensure that no candidate is deprived of taking the exams. He said his organization has been part of the meetings in the Ministry which were held to rectify issues ahead of the exams, noting that why the principals in those schools did not follow up on the process remains unanswered.
“The Foundational learning President Bio is talking about is key to the development of the country and we will continue to monitor the Education Sector Plan with the theme of transforming learning for all”, said the Civil Right Activist, adding that one of the
9 pillars in the Master Plan they are working closely on have to do with the elimination of corruption within the education sector.
Unprecedentedly, 228, 171 candidates are set to take this year’s WASSCE; the highest number of candidates the Government has paid for since the launch of the Free Quality Education by President Julius Maada Bio.
Political pundits are of the opinion that the opposition would use the none entry of over two thousand candidates as a political yardstick to ignite demonstrations or measure up the education sector under the current regime of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).