Ghana has for the past five years toped the West Africa Examination
Council (WAEC) Competition for the international excellence award, WAEC
announced on Thursday.
For the year 2014, all three Ghanaian candidates who
participated in the award with other WAEC students, swept all the three
top awards offered at that level once again.
The overall top candidate, Hasan Mickail, a former student of
Ghana Secondary Technical School (GSTS) in the Western Region, who was
the best candidate in the General Science programme, both at the
national and international level, also won the Bandele Award for the
best performing candidate in the whole of West Africa.
Ghana, Nigeria, and the Gambia participated in the 2014 WAEC
examination, while Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two other WAEC
countries, did not participate in the examinations due to the Ebola
pandemic and a change in those countries educational system.
The Very Reverend Samuel Nmai Ollennu, the Head of National
Office, WAEC, who announced this at this year’s WAEC Distinction Awards
ceremony organized to honour candidates, who excelled in the May/June
2014 edition of the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) said Ghana, since the period of the SSCE and when the WASSCE
was introduced has been topping in the international exams.
He said for the past four years, Ghanaian WASSCE students have continuously topped in the international Exams.
Rev Ollennu explained that for a candidate to win such awards, he or she must obtain a minimum of eight grade A1s.
Candidates, who qualified for the awards, competed at two
levels, consisting of the national (home country) and international
(West Africa) levels with other WAEC candidates.
At the award ceremony held in Accra, the overall top winner,
Mickail and four other awardees were given various sums of money,
certificates, and laptops, whilst their former schools were given
plagues.
Mickail was offered a full scholarship by the Universal
Merchant Bank Ghana Limited to undertake a tertiary education in any
university in Ghana, while the WAEC Endowment Fund, the main sponsor of
the Distinction awards gave him the cedi equivalent of 300 dollars, and
the Ghana National office of WAEC gave him 700 dollars, cedi equivalent.
Other award winners were Mr Kenyah Blaykyi, formerly of St
Augustine’s College, who took the second position, received the cedi
equivalent of 200 dollars and 300 dollars from the WAEC Fund and the
Ghana National office, WAEC, respectively. FirstBanc Ghana, a financial
institution is also giving Mr Blaykyi GH¢ 2,000 as part of the package.
Henry Enninful Archibald, a former student of Mfantsipim
School, won the third position and was rewarded with 200 dollars and 300
dollars from the Fund and the Ghana National Office respectively. The
Enterprise Insurance Limited also gave GHC 1,000 to Mr Archibald.
Mr Elvis Okoh-Asirifi, formerly of Opoku Ware SHS in the
Ashanti Region, and Ms Deborah Akosua Atuabea Attuah, a former student
of Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, won the best candidate in
business and General Arts Programmes respectively. They all received the
cedi equivalent of 400 dollars each and certificates.
Rev Ollennu said by giving the awards, WAEC believed that it
would be an incentive to spur the students on to work harder in future
examinations and in other future endeavours.
Dr Iyi Uwadiae, the Registrar at the WAEC Council commended
Ghana for the consistency in winning the awards over the past years,
assuring that, in spite of the few examination malpractices, WAEC exams
were “still valid and very reliable”.
Mr Enoch Cobbinah, the Chief Director of the Ministry of
Education, who represented the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Alex
Kyeremeh, said the outstanding performances by the students indicated
that “Ghana’s educational system is the best in the West Africa region
so no one should think that our educational system is in shambles”.
Source: GNA
