On Monday, August 26, 2024, seven students from Labone Senior High School (SHS) were disqualified from participating in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) due to their repeated lateness.
This incident marks the second time the affected students have arrived late for their exams.
The situation came to light during a visit by Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, who was at the school to monitor the examination’s progress and offer support to the candidates.
Headmistress of Labone SHS, Rejoice Akua Acorlor expressed her dismay, noting that the students had been briefed extensively on the examination rules and the importance of punctuality. She called on parents to emphasize the importance of arriving on time and highlighted the school’s commitment to addressing the issue.
“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.”
Rev. Ntim Fordjour indicated that he would investigate the specifics of the incident before commenting further, but reaffirmed that adherence to examination rules is crucial.
“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”, he stated.
