Past Questions: A major threat to quality education in Ghana (Part 2)

Curiosity declines. They may pass exams without having read a full textbook cover‑to‑cover.

Related article: Past Questions: Major threat to quality education in Ghana (Part 1)

When large portions of test banks become public through repeated reuse, exam validity is compromised.

Scores no longer reflect independent mastery.

The exam, in effect, stops telling the truth.

Professional competence gaps

In health care, for example, newly posted staff who clear licensure exams may be unable to recall basic definitions (for example, “health” per the World Health Organisation) or perform foundational procedures such as safe eye cleaning, instilling ear drops, or setting an infusion correctly.

Similar gaps show up in education, where some teachers struggle to explain the eight parts of speech (a building block for effective English communication).

Reliance on templated written responses (increasingly aided by AI tools) hides underlying language weakness.

In face‑to‑face settings (ward rounds, classrooms, community outreach), the deficit becomes clear.

When a system signals that “spotting questions” beats “understanding,” it unintentionally teaches shortcuts over integrity.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt warned, educating the mind without morals risks educating a menace to society.

Let’s be honest: many students turn to Passco because the system has left them with few good options.

Overcrowded classes, weak teacher support, and one exam deciding their future—that fear pushes them towards shortcuts.

If we want change, we must address those root causes too.

Reliance on Passco is not just a sign of laziness; it is a response to a system that often fails them.

When students feel they must pass or lose everything, they will choose what feels safest, even if it is shallow.

Guiding Principles for Reform

Before turning to detailed recommendations, four principles should guide national and institutional action: Assess for understanding, not recall alone.

Exams must sample broadly and require application to new scenarios. 

Balance accountability with learning. High‑stakes decisions should be informed by multiple evidence streams, that is, coursework, practicals, projects, and portfolios, not a single test sitting.

Support, don’t just police. Educators need resources, manageable class sizes, and assessment training to move beyond Passco dependence.

Model integrity system-wide. When leaders value deep learning, communities follow.

Recommendations

Every major exam should include at least 30% new, application‑based items that cannot be answered by memorising past answers.

This reduces the return on pure “spotting.”

Teachers and lecturers can use short oral quizzes, group presentations, and “teach-the-topic” sessions in class.

These are cheap, quick, and harder to bypass with memorised answers.

Each year, schools, colleges, and regulators can publish brief notes explaining how exam items are refreshed and how misuse of Passco undermines fairness.

This builds trust in the system.

These simple steps can be introduced quickly, even with limited resources, and can create momentum for deeper reform.

The Ministry of Education, Ghana Health Service, Nurse Training Colleges, Ministry of Health, and Regulatory Councils should establish national guidance that aims at fostering learning, improving instructional technics verses overreliance, predicting passco drilling single answers.

Enforce periodic exam item‑refresh cycles using large, secure item banks; rotate formats; and include performance‑based and scenario items.

Resource libraries (physical and digital) at basic, secondary, and tertiary levels; negotiate national e‑resource licenses where possible.

Cap class sizes or fund staffing ratios in professional programmers’ to enable formative assessment beyond multiple-choice questions.

Audit training institutions for assessment quality and curriculum coverage, not just pass rates.

Examination bodies should increase the proportion of novel, application‑based questions each year. Publish blueprints (competencies and weightings) rather than recycling specific items.

Use anchored but undisclosed item pools and, where feasible, adaptive or multiple-form testing to reduce recall advantage.

Provide sample items that model thinking, then retire them permanently so they cannot be reused as “Passco.”

Institutions should adopt Assessment for Learning strategies: frequent low‑stakes quizzes, open‑book concept tasks, lab practicals, and oral vivas. Require (annotated reading logs or short reflective summaries).

Establish Academic Integrity Policies that explicitly discourage Passco drilling as primary preparation.

Provide Faculty Development workshops on writing new items and constructing clear rubrics.

Educators should use past questions diagnostically: “What concept does this item test? How else might we ask it?”

Vary question formats (short answer, structured response, case vignette, practical demonstration). 

Integrate real-world scenarios drawn from Ghanaian contexts, community health outreach, and classroom management.

Give surprise formative checks to encourage continuous study rather than last-minute cramming.

Students and parents should treat Passco as a revision supplement, not the syllabus.

Build concept notebooks: definitions in their own words, simple diagrams, and worked examples.

They should form peer study groups that rotate teaching roles because “If you can teach it, you know it.”

Track skills mastered, not only scores.

A simple, low‑effort challenge for students: Professional sectors should link licensure renewal to continuing professional development (CPD) activities that require demonstration of skill, not just paper certificates.

Use simulation labs and supervised practice logs as part of graduation requirements.

Technology and publishing partners should develop interactive question banks that randomise data sets, so items test reasoning, not recall.

Embed instant feedback with concept explanations, turn every question into a mini-lesson. 

Five-to-seven-year roadmap

Phase 1 (0–12 months): Lay the foundation. Convene a national stakeholder roundtable (exam bodies, unions, heads of institutions, parents, and students).

Issue clear national guidance on responsible Passco use and warn against harmful overreliance.

Begin planning for exam item‑refresh cycles and start building secure item banks.

Phase 2 (12–36 months): Pilot and learn.

Pilot revised exam forms in selected districts and selected subjects.

Train teachers and lecturers in diversified assessment (oral quizzes, practicals, scenario-based tasks).

Expand digital library access and basic tech-enabled interactive banks where connectivity allows.

Phase 3 (36–84 months): Scale and embed. Scale proven approaches to all regions.

Embed multi‑evidence certification (exam + coursework + practicum) in key professional programmes.

Monitor outcomes and publish annual briefs on Passco use and exam integrity.

Run public awareness campaigns with the tagline “Learn it. Don’t just spot it.” 

Reframing success: Knowledge plus character.

Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that the goal of true education is intelligence plus character.

When we elevate shortcuts over substance, we fail both measures.

Benjamin Franklin urged investment in knowledge; he promised that returns would follow.

Let us invest in knowledge that serves society, not merely in certificates that decorate walls.

Experience remains one of the greatest teachers. Formal schooling should amplify, not replace, the lessons life gives us.

If we align policy, practice, and values, Ghana can lead the continent in re‑centring education on understanding, service, and integrity.

Call to action

Educators must audit their next exam by considering how much of it could be answered by memorising old items.

Revise at least 30 per cent with new, application-based questions. 

Students, for one week after studying a passco question, should explain the answer to a friend without checking their notes.

If they could not do so, that means that they have not really learned it yet.

Parents and communities must ask the schools what the children are learning, beyond passing their exams.

Leaders must invest in resources, libraries, teacher training, and assessment reforms.

The cost of inaction is a workforce unprepared for nation-building.

Conclusion:

Ghana stands at a defining moment in its educational journey.

The continued overreliance on Passco is not just an academic concern; it is a national risk.

When a system rewards memorisation over understanding, it produces graduates who may pass exams but struggle to perform, innovate, or lead.

No country can build a resilient health system, a credible education sector, or a competitive economy on such a fragile foundation.

The issue before us is not the existence of Passco, but the culture we have allowed to grow around it - a culture that quietly lowers standards while appearing to uphold them.

If left unchecked, it would normalise mediocrity, weaken professional competence, and erode trust in qualifications that should command respect.

Reversing this trend demands collective responsibility.

Policymakers must reform assessment systems, educators must prioritise depth over coverage, and students must choose understanding over shortcuts.

Parents and communities, too, must shift the conversation from “Did you pass?” to “What have you learned?”

The future of Ghana’s workforce, institutions, and public safety depends on the quality of education delivered today.

The choice is clear: continue down a path of convenient shortcuts or commit to the harder, more rewarding path of genuine learning.

Passco should remain what it was meant to be - a tool, not a teacher; a guide, not a guarantee.

Ghana must reclaim the true purpose of education: to build minds that can think, hands that can work, and characters that can serve.

The writer is the Deputy Director of Nursing Services, Ghana Health Service, Cape Coast.