In some schools, teachers receive between 2,000 and 5,000 cedis for leaking papers - Former NAGRAT President
- A past President of NAGRAT has alleged that some SHS management leak papers
- Kwami Alorvi alleges that some teachers are paid between 2000 and 5000 cedis to leak papers
- These allegations come on the back of recent leakages of WASSCE papers
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A former president of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Kwami Alorvi, has uncovered how some Senior High Schools (SHS) are complicit in the leakage of WASSCE papers.
In an extensive article, the past NAGRAT President revealed that except the Biology Practical Paper, virtually all the question papers written so far had leaked ahead of time. Even the Biology paper seemed to have been changed at the last hour due to leakage judging from the ten specimens in the actual paper as against the eight specimens sent to the schools to arrange for the practical.
Source: UGC
“At the apex of these cabals are the School Managements. Some Heads of School, with the connivance of their PTAs, have instituted collection of illegal fees ranging between Ghc100.00 and Ghc400.00 per candidate termed as "Teacher Motivation". A school with an enrollment of 1,200 SHS3 candidates collecting Ghc300.00 per student for example, will bag an amount of Ghc360,000.00 for the WASSCE.
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Trusted teachers are put in charge of collection of these levies by their Heads. Parents of examination candidates are in a hurry to pay these levies since their wards are assured of excellent WASSCE results. At the end of each WASSCE, the money is disbursed among all teachers. Intelligence picked by our Team indicates that in some schools, each teacher receives between Ghc2,000.00 and Ghc5,000.00,” he alleged.
Below continues excerpts to his allegation
Reports yet to be investigated by our team also indicate that some Management staff at the Regional Directorates and Headquarters of the GES are allegedly well catered for by the Heads of School with part of this money and this provides a shield to these unscrupulous heads from being sanctioned. When our team tried to probe further into this allegation, one informant drew our attention to a peculiar happening in the GES to convince us to accept his position.
He asked if we had ever seen Regional Directors and CHASS Executives going to GES Headquarters to plead for the reinstatement of Headmasters that were removed from office for speaking about challenges of the free SHS. Our response of course, was in the negative. He asked, if Regional Directors and CHASS Executives were not benefiting from the money, how come they always travelled to the GES Headquarters to plead on behalf of Heads sanctioned for collection of these illegal "Teacher Motivation" fees.
The informant concluded that it was because of the benefits that spread up the ladder that Directors and CHASS Executives are always eager to intercede on behalf of Heads caught in the collection of the "teacher motivation" fee.
Our team uncovered some reasons why collection of the unapproved "teacher motivation" levies are becoming the new normal in the Senior High Schools. Prior to the introduction of the free SHS in 2017, students were paying PTA levy of Ghc30.00 per year (Ghc10.00 per term) for Teacher Motivation. With the inception of free SHS, government absorbed this fee and reduced it to Ghc20.00 per year (Ghc6.67 per term) and has now cancelled it completely. Heads don't have any money to motivate their teachers.
The academic intervention fee instituted by the MoE for extra tuition of students have been paid only two times since 2017; once out of three terms in 2017 and one term in 2020. Apart from the gaps left in 2017 and 2020, no payments were made to the schools in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The Ghc10.00 per student examination fee that the schools used to receive from government has also allegedly been reduced to Ghc5.00 per student. Payment of the Ghc10.00 per student development levy to schools has also been abolished by the MoE/GES.
Thus, with dwindling funds for running the schools and motivating teachers, Heads, rather than discuss development issues with their staff, go to staff meetings to read the "Book of Lamentation" to their staff. They are thus able to carry the staff along to support them in the examination fraud under the guise of teacher motivation fees. Benefit from the teacher motivation fees from the Head is a bait that teachers are unable to resist.
One teacher even jokingly said President Akufo Addo had said teachers should do other things in addition to their teaching if they wanted to be rich so their Headmasters are doing what he termed "Financial Engineering". The money received by teachers from their Heads is enough to compromise them as invigilators in the exam halls.
Students are aware of payment of these levies by their parents and are determined to demand for their side of the bargain from teachers. Some teachers whose conscience does not allow them to condone and connive, opt out of invigilation in some schools. A few others who want to live by their professionalism do invigilate but refuse to allow students to cheat. They thus come under attack from fellow teachers and students.
They receive written threats from students, surreptitiously posted in their pigeon holes in staff common rooms, or dropped on their vehicles parked in the schools, or in their houses by aggrieved students. Our team is in possession of copies of such threats.
The motivation of Heads to undertake this fraud is to get good results that will boost their image and that of their schools. Another reason is the fear for removal from office should their schools fail to produce good results. The examination fraud has now become a pandemic affecting virtually every school including the big ones in all the regions. Obtaining good grades by whatever means has become a do or die affair.
Source: YEN.com.gh
