Pusiga DCE apologises over ‘all die be die’ question
The Pusiga District Chief Executive, Mr Alhassan Abugbila, has expressed regret that his first attempt to organise Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) English Language mock examination in the district has turned sour.
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The DCE’s comments come in the wake of a controversy that emanated from Question 18 of the English paper for the district mock examination that asked the candidates to choose from a set of possible answers the one which was nearest in meaning to the word ‘’canvassed’’. This was captured in the sentence: “Nana Addo, popularly known as ‘All-die-be-die,' canvassed for votes.”
Pictures of the question went viral on social media since it emerged and many have criticised the Pusiga District Assembly for the question.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic , the DCE indicated that he contracted a private examination body, whose name he did not mention, to set the questions and when the questions were brought to the candidates to answer the teachers could not go through them due to time constraint.
Apology
Mr Abugbila has, therefore, rendered an apology to the leadership of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) for the mishap, describing it as "unfortunate and unintentional".
He further explained that the practice of contracting private examination bodies to conduct such exercises was common and formed part of measures by the various district assemblies to contribute their quota towards complementing efforts in promoting quality education.
"It is, therefore, unfortunate that my first attempt to do this has become a challenge," he said.
Remedy
He conceded that since the candidates had already written the paper, the only way was to strike out that particular question that had sparked the controversy.
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The Upper East Regional Director of Education, Madam Janet Kawia, said since it was the Pusiga District that organised the mock examination, the only suggestion she could offer was for that particular question to be struck out and the candidates given a bonus mark.
She said if it were teachers employed by the Ghana Education Service who had set the questions, that would have been a different thing altogether. Madam Kawia said notwithstanding that, the necessary measures would be put in place to avoid such unfortunate incidents in the future.
The Regional NPP Communications Director,Mr Edmund Awuni, said by this weekend, the NPP in the region might issue a statement on the matter if they were given the go-ahead.
He stated that the leadership of the party had already met with the DCE to ascertain why such a thing happened and eventually he (the DCE) had no option but to apologise to the party and the people of Ghana.
Below standard
Since the issue emerged, some NPP bigwigs and educationists have described the question set for the candidates as "cheap and below the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) standard".
Nana Addo made the ‘all-die-be-die’ remarks in the heat of the 2012 election campaign.
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