Former Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh, has criticised the Service for what he describes as an unfortunate and damaging response to the sharp decline in the 2025 WASSCE performance.
Speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, Dr. Tandoh said the GES’s attempt to attribute the drop in results to stricter invigilation and anti-malpractice measures amounts to suggesting that previous years’ good performances were achieved through cheating.
According to him, such an inference is “unfortunate” and “illogical.”
“This statement from GES infers that until this year, WAEC has not been able to run credible exams, which to me is very bad and unfortunate,” he said. “For an agency whose head is the chair of the WAEC council to make such inferences about the Council is troubling.”
Dr. Tandoh questioned why the GES would publicly make a statement that indirectly undermines WAEC when the Director-General of GES is statutorily a member of the WAEC council.
“What would GES have been explaining if students had performed well this year?” he asked.
He argued that instead of shifting blame, GES should take responsibility for systemic gaps that may have contributed to the poor outcomes.
“GES is supposed to accept responsibility rather than saying the exam is a true reflection of performance,” he stressed.
Dr. Tandoh further warned that the Service’s earlier position could create even more problems.
“If GES maintains that previous high performance came from cheating, then any improvement next year would mean GES allowed cheating. That argument is illogical and unacceptable,” he said.
He also stated that GES must avoid being drawn into political exchanges, urging the Service to focus on evidence-based analysis rather than defensive rhetoric.
While GES has dismissed claims that poor management practices contributed to the performance decline—and insisted that teacher allowances and academic support programmes remain intact—Dr. Tandoh strongly disagreed.
According to him, several key interventions that support both teachers and students were not implemented this year.
He listed them as:
- the academic intervention grants,
- chief examiners’ workshops,
- teacher training sessions, and
- core subject teacher training programmes.
“These interventions were not available for this batch of final-year students. Whether GES admits it or not, these things matter—and they may be contributing factors,” he said.
He urged Ghanaians not to accept explanations that downplay these lapses.
“They should stop throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians,” he added.
Dr. Tandoh maintained that the national conversation should focus on diagnosing the real causes of the results decline and restoring confidence in both GES and WAEC through transparency, accountability and data-driven reforms.
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