Consumer advocacy group CUTS International, Accra, is urging the Ministry of Education and Parliament to compel the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to abolish its long-standing practice of charging students to access their examination results online.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the West Africa Regional Director of CUTS, Mr. Appiah Kusi Adomako, described the current system where candidates must purchase scratch cards to view their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results—as exploitative and outdated.
“Accessing examination results should be a basic right, not a source of revenue,” Mr. Adomako said. “This practice is unjustified and borders on extortion.”
WAEC currently charges candidates between GHS 15 and GHS 25 per scratch card. CUTS estimates that with about 600,000 candidates sitting for the BECE annually, the council could generate at least GHS 9 million from result access fees alone.
Mr. Adomako argued that the digital transition, which WAEC adopted in 2004 to replace the manual distribution of physical result slips, was intended to reduce logistical costs and improve accessibility. However, the introduction of online result fees has instead placed a financial burden on students and their families.
“In countries such as South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Kenya, and Zambia, students access their results online without any charge. Ghana should not be an exception,” he stated.
The statement also criticized the cost associated with the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), which places students into Senior High Schools. Despite being introduced to enhance transparency and reduce administrative costs, students are still required to pay to check their placement status.
“This defeats the purpose of automation and places an unnecessary financial burden on families, especially those in rural or economically challenged communities,” Mr. Adomako added.
CUTS is calling on the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education to immediately intervene and halt the practice. The organization emphasized that other examination and placement systems, including ACCA, SAT, TOEFL, GRE, IELTS, and the Ghana National Service Scheme, provide free online access to results or postings.
“The fact that WAEC’s fee system has existed for 21 years does not justify its continuation. It is time to prioritize affordability and accessibility in education,” Mr. Adomako concluded.
Source: www.kumasimail.com / Isaac Justice Bediako
