Observe COVID-19 protocols during WASSCE – Nana Addo to students, teachers

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked students, teachers and invigilators who will be involved in the conduct of the 2020 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to abide by COVID-19 protocols.

“Just as has been done over the course of the last four weeks, since their return to school, I continue to urge everyone associated with the conduct of this year’s WASSCE, i.e teaching and non-teaching staff, invigilators and students, to abide by the enhanced hygiene, mask-wearing and social distancing protocols they have become accustomed to. They continue to remain our weapons in the fight to defeat COVID-19,” the President said.

President Nana Addo also extended best wishes to students who will be taking the WASSCE.

“I send best wishes to the three hundred and thirteen thousand, eight hundred and thirty-seven (313,837) final year Senior High School students who will from Monday 20th July take the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).”

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) which conducts the WASSCE concurrently in anglophone West Africa; Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia announced on 20th March 2020 that it was indefinitely suspending the annual exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, upon discussions with Ghana following the country’s decision to ease COVID-19 restrictions and allow final year students return to school, it was agreed that the exams will be held independently for Ghana.

The timetable for this year’s WASSCE will begin with Project Work for Visual Arts candidates on Monday, July, 20, 2020, while the theory papers will begin from August 3, 2020, till September 5, 2020.

Ahead of the examination, there has been a call for a review of the WASSCE examination timetable which has been described by an education think tank, Africa Education Watch as “strenuous”.