Seven students at the Labone Senior High School were barred from taking part in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on Monday, August 26, 2024, due to lateness.
According to the school authorities, this is the second time the students have arrived late for the exams.
This information was revealed during a tour by the Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, to the school as part of efforts to monitor the progress of the examination and extend his best wishes to the candidates.
The Headmistress of Labone SHS, Rejoice Akua Acorlor, expressed concern over the situation, noting that the students had been thoroughly briefed on the exam’s rules and regulations.
She urged parents to counsel their wards on punctuality and indicated that her outfit is working to put an end to this situation.
“Today we wrote social studies as one of the courses. We started on time and before today’s paper, we had given the students a briefing. We have explained to them what WAEC expects from us as a school, they should be here on time, they should be here clearly 30 minutes before the start of the paper, they should be seated.”
“So we expected them one hour before the time and we were able to put them to their various seats, and they started the paper. After 1 hour 20 minutes, some students came in and as per the briefing or the information from WAEC, we are not expected to let them, they’ve stayed too long.”
“If it was 20, 30 minutes, and they have tangible reasons, we would let them in. These were some of the students who wrote their visual art papers and they kept coming late. We have spoken to them, we’ve cautioned them and today they came late with no reason, so it was difficult for us to let them in. As a mother of this school, I am not happy if all our students do not take part in the examination.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. Ntim, when asked what his outfit would do about the situation said, “The rules are very clear and therefore I would want to find out the exact incident that happened and look for details of it before I can respond but there are rules to every examination and I will appeal that all stakeholders abide by that rule. So in this particular instance you cited, I will look into it. “
