A pupil was humiliated in a distressing occurrence that occurred on Thursday, September 7, 2023, during the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) at the Ofori Panin Senior High School testing center.
The student’s dignity was taken away as a result of his failure to follow the necessary dress code for the examination.
The WASSCE candidate had arrived at the examination center wearing a white shirt and brown khaki shorts, a combination that violated the dress code.
This attire enraged a WAEC (West African Examinations Council) official, who took dramatic measures by forcibly removing the student’s khaki shorts, leaving him with only his boxer shorts as he attempted to sit for the tests.
This is only one of several worrisome examples of intimidation and harassment reported by candidates at this particular examination center.
In some cases, applicants detailed their ordeals, telling of unjustified harassment and intimidation by WAEC personnel who seemed intent on creating fear in them for no apparent reason.
Anonymous applicants reported that one George Agyekum, a depot officer and Senior Assistant Registrar at WAEC, was at the center of these allegations.
Agyekum was accused of intimidating, frightening, and purposefully pestering candidates in order to have a negative psychological impact on them.
In one especially frightening incident, George Agyekum was accused of physically assaulting a candidate and accusing them of attempting to cheat during the examination.
When approached by the media seeking his response to the claims, Agyekum declined to speak, instead directing them to his superiors in Accra.
Parents of kids taking the examination voiced their deep discontent with the officials’ behavior and urged the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene quickly and rectify the matter.
They demanded assurances that similar instances would not happen again and that students would be able to take their exams in an environment devoid of fear, intimidation, and humiliation.
