Every single one of the seven hundred and twenty (720) students in the first batch of Free SHS beneficiaries of the Bankoman Senior High School, who sat for the 2020 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASCE) failed, Whatsup News has gathered.
They had F in chains according to livid parents who are demanding answers from the Akufo-Addo government had touted the success of its Free SHS program.
Videos have emerged of parents who are among other things, demanding either a re-mark of the exam papers, an opportunity for a re-sit for their wards, or for their wards to be passed somehow.
“We want the government to know that we do not understand what has happened here and so we demand that the children be allowed to re-sit the exams. I believe in my child, and so I do not accept the results. It cannot be that out of 720 students, not even one could pass,” said one parent.
Another parent said, “All we are telling the government is that what we are experiencing has never happened before in Bankoman here and so we need the government to help us get a remark; because they complained to us that, according to the Head Mistress of the school, that the way she was dealing with the children, was not good. Lo and behold almost 800 students sat the exams and not even a single one of them passed. And so we need the President to do something.”
For a distraught father, the three harrowing years of Free SHS could not possibly end in a total failure of his wards. “If you look at the whole Bankuman, this has never happened before. In the four years that the government took over Bankuman and has been running Bankuman Senior High , as we speak, more than 700 students sat for the exams; they say Free SHS, in fact it is not easy that at the end of the day, your child will school for three good years and come back home with F in chains; which is very bad.”
This seeming isolated report from the Bankoman is against the backdrop of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) tabulating some 54% pass rate for the over 300,000 students who sat for this year’s SSCE examination.
These are the first students to benefit from the Free SHS policy of the Akufo Addo administration which has been touted as its top priority policy.