Remove GES officials from WAEC invigilation process to help curb exams malpractices - Prof Adei
Stephen Adei, a Professor Emeritus at Ashesi University has said the widespread examination malpractice in recent times in Ghana was due to what he described as a symptom of a deeper national problem, which he calls “schooling without learning” and a society in moral decline.
In a radio interview with Joy FM on Monday [September 8, 2025] Prof Adei said the scandal, where some Ghana Education Service (GES) officials, supervisors and invigilators colluded with candidates to facilitate cheating, was not an isolated act of corruption but part of a wider erosion of values in the country.
“What is happening is a reflection of the moral degradation in our society,” Prof Adei said. “When you see politicians openly bribing their way, when people say that so long as we get money, even if we poison the whole nation, we don’t care, corruption in the public sector, the decadence in the homes, because it’s parents who are sponsoring this.”
He was commenting on a documentary by Joy News that exposes how invigilators openly request “tokens” of about GH¢60 a day, while supervisors are handed envelopes of roughly GH¢400. Candidates are also made to contribute to what was described as an “Aseda Offertory.”
Some supervisors also allegedly served as informants, tipping off invigilators whenever WAEC or National Security officers are visiting exams centers for supervision and assessment of how the exams was being conducted.
Prof Adei argued that this culture of shortcuts has its roots in the failure of Ghana’s basic education system.
“Our primary schools, in the public sector, practically, the children go to school totally illiterate. While if you go to a place like Togo, by the second year in primary school, every child is literate,” he said. Citing a 2016 World Bank report, he added: “We have what is called schooling without learning. If this is not addressed, these people therefore go through and they have to have a way of getting some certificate anyway… hook or by crook.”
The educationist proposed reforms to end the malpractice. Chief among them was removing GES officials from the invigilation process. “The idea of the invigilators coming from the GES, I think that we must stop it. Let WAEC recruit its own invigilators, and they are deployed only at the last minute,” he said.
He also recommended the use of personalised exam papers, a system already in place in some private schools. “In this day and age, all questions for every individual student can be personalised. You can generate it, so that in a package of hours, you do it on the computer straightaway. Even in multiple choice, every student doesn’t get the same,” Prof Adei explained.
On punishment, he called for tougher sanctions against those aiding cheating. “Let Parliament pass a law. If you aid and you are caught, you are in for five years,” he argued. “People will start learning sense whether they should go and get a thousand cedis and risk imprisonment for six months.”
Prof Adei also stressed that parents must not be left out, pointing out that many of them provide the money or mobile phones used by their children to cheat. “This is really a serious offence. We must punish the teachers, the regulators, and parents whose children are caught,” he said.
