A History Of Ghana’s Second Cycle External Examination Systems, 1951-2006

ABSTRACT

Traditional African societies are not oblivious to examinations. The introduction of formal ed-ucation to British West Africa, however with school examinations, date back to the eighteenth century. This system brought a different understanding of assessing learners with its own unique form of examination, administered after a period of study. The aim of this study is to provide a historical survey of second cycle external examinations and the two common inter-twined problems of annual examination malpractices and poor examination performance in Ghana. At the pre-tertiary level of Ghana’s education, there exist both internal and external examinations. Despite successive governments’ effort to provide accessibility, equity, and quality education through the adoption of three different external examination models known as the British, National and Sub-regional examination models, the problem of examination malpractice and poor examination performance still persists in second cycle education in Ghana.

This thesis makes use of both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources included data from the Public Record and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD), archival docu-ments from the Ministry of Education, National and Headquarters of the West African Exam-ination Council, the Parliament of Ghana and Balme Library. Also, this study relied heavily on oral interviews. Moreover, the work engages various secondary sources such as books, articles, journals etc.

This thesis revealed that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) was established after G.B. Jeffery report of March 1950 supporting the demand and agitation for a local body to perform what the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate and the University of London School Examinations Matriculations Council previously did in the colonies.

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Also, the thesis identified over-emphasis of examinations and certification in Ghana, poverty, fear, and the abuse of technology as the factors responsible for examination malpractices.

With regards to poor examination performance, failure by WAEC to organize its examination at the appropriate and original period, abuse of formative assessment by teachers and counsel-lors, inability to complete syllabus and the traditional parents’ and students’ role were identi-fied as the factors responsible for poor examination performance among second cycle students in Ghana. The thesis also brought to light a poor application of Continuous Assessment in grading second cycle students in Ghana.