Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe has urged the government to release the over GH¢30 million arrears owed to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
WAEC has completed the conduct of both the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) but according to Mr Nortsu-Kotoe, although the government paid some GH¢55 million in July, the examination body does not have funds to manage the marking of scripts and other essentials to ensure the timely release of the results.
He urged the government to pay the GH¢30 million arrears on time to ensure the release of the results is not delayed since WAEC does not have any other source of revenue.
Mr. Nortsu-Kotoe called on the government to pay the money since it had scrapped the payment of registration fees by students who sit for the BECE and WASSCE.
“WAEC does not generate any other revenue apart from what the government gives them, and it should not just be what the government gives them because these are registration fees that the government has taken over and decided not to allow students to pay at the BECE and WASSCE levels, but these are the various sums of monies that should be given to WAEC and so every year, they should come to an agreement how much they will pay per student so that we do the calculation at the Committee level the total sum to give to WAEC.”
“We are of the view that if these monies are not released in time, WAEC will have to delay the marking of both examinations, and that will delay the release of the results.”