By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the West Africa Examination Council are currently in disagreement over the release of the soft Copy of the just released 2021 results of y
the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) taken by SSS 3 pupils across the country.
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education who doubles as the Chief Innovation Officer at the Directorate of Science ,Technology and Innovation took to twitter on Christmas day seeking public opinion on the refusal of the examining body to release soft copies of the results,
“I did ask WAEC for the soft copies of the WASSCE Exams. They refused claiming the data belongs to them and referred the matter to their board which meets in January. What do our citizens think about this? We have dispatched the hard copies to schools without analysis,” his post on Twitter reads.
The Ministry for both the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) conducted by WAEC created a free results checker portal in collaboration with two telecommunication service providers in the country to allow parents and pupils access their results through SMS text using any type of mobile phone. The Minister also analysed the results announcing the 10 best candidates and schools and also the aggregated scores of boys and girls to assess the impacts of the government’s radical inclusion policy in education.
However, in a correspondence seen by Politico between the two institutions, the Council frowns at the establishment of another platform to access WAEC results apart from that which is created by the institution which is paid for.
“The council has viewed this development as most inappropriate and worrisome, in view of its immediate and long term implications for the council, the education sector and the Sierra Leonean child. Due to the likelihood of operational and security implications, it is not the council’s practice to release a soft copy of the whole examination results to any requesting authority outside the council,” it reads.
It added “Honourable Minister, we appreciate your expertise in the field of technology, and with your vast knowledge and experience in the field, we have no doubt that you are quite aware of the endless possibilities and threats to which the huge volume of data for the 2021 NPSE and BECE are being exposed or subjected to on the result checker platform created by the MBSSE. As an individual technological expert, you certainly possess all that is require to operate, maintain and protect a website or online platform, but considering the transient nature of all appointments, the continued existence and safety of the platform may not be guarantee in an event of your redeployment to another ministry.”
The letter also highlighted that the action will affect the integrity of the council’s data, candidates when they go to other countries and that, “the conduct of examinations ahead of payment will of fees by the government will no longer be feasible, as revenue due the council and the result checker service provider is usually borrowed to pre -finance examination.”
In response to this, the ministry in a letter dated 23rd December 2021 allays the fears of the West Africa examining body, assuring that the data is safe and that it will create no confusion since WAEC has the original copy to all the results. “The integrity of council data: since the council has the original examination data, the integrity of the council’s data remains unaffected by what we do with our own copy. Note that nothing is changed in the data we received from WAEC before we publish on our platforms,” it reads.
Parents as well as pupils and social media users have accused WAEC of extortion of money from the population who are always in a rush to access the results before it gets to the schools for distributions. The cost of the scratch card used to access the WAEC portal is above Le 40,000 at some sales points across the country.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (28/12/21)
