To the Memory of B.E.C.E (part2)

First of, I thank everyone and anyone who took time to read and comment on the article "To the Memory of B.E.C.E".  The varied comments and criticisms were enlightening. While some could relate with my experience, some gave me a critical analysis with regard to semantics, punctuation, syntax and all the elements that only a professor of English could explore in a write-up. Others spoke on the aesthetic features and confessed they enjoyed the reading so much that they had wanted more. A friend even took a quarrel with me because according to him, I left him hanging. He wanted to know what happened especially to the pregnant girl. ( well my friend, she gave birth to a baby. I'm sure it was either a boy or a girl. Lol. And they lived however best they could ever after). In whatever package your comments came, I appreciate it.

Let me state here, before I get onto the concern for which I came here to write, that I did not intentionally end on the pregnant girl to the effect that it should create a sort of suspense, no. I had intended to go on memory lane to write, as much as I can recall, the feelings and events prior to the time I wrote my Basic Education Certificate Examination. Mind you, it was a trip through memory lane and that was how far my memory will serve me. So please bear with me.

Now, I am here to put out my thoughts on the leakage of BECE questions that led to the cancellation of about 5 papers in this years exams. I thought this year's leakage was going to make it to the Guiness Book of Records, until a friend who wrote his BECE in 2002, recounted his experienceto me in an interview waiting room.

More than a decade and three years ago, Mr. F wrote his BECE and according to him, what happened this June 2015 is nowhere close to what occurred in  his time. He told me to my utter disbelief that in April 2002, every single subject with the exception of French and Ghanaian language, was cancelled. They heard the news about a week after their last paper. By then, the over-joyed graduates had torn their uniforms into irrecognizable pieces. They were so sure they had "mudered" the exams and already made their A's that some had foolishly thrown their text books into the air like mortarboards and cared not the least for how or where it landed  Fortunately, they were given a month to recuperate from the "heartbreak" and sudden depression. In the first week of July they went back to their various halls where they proved themselves once again and hopefully this time, everyone will reap what they had really sowed. Mr. F called it their 2nd world war

So, if indeed this sort of conduct towards final exams has been in existence since 2002,and could recur in 2015, I wonder what sort of people are put in our state intitutions and tasked with overseeing the Education of Ghanaians. I am forced to ask if they care at all about the future? And if next year something like this should happen during WASSCE or BECE, we are failing, if not failed, as a nation.

I read somewhere that teachers are like doctors, the students are the patients and the classroom is the operating room. How and what they teach must be done with the utmost diligence.

These young ones are the future of Ghana and yet what do we teach them? That hardwork and doing the right things don't matter anymore? That they should cheat their way through life and that honesty isn't necessary? Shame on those that call themselves teachers and yet condone this "ap) kronkron" lifestyle so that their students will pass despite their laziness. What sort of humans are we grooming to lead Ghana? If you are a teacher reading this article, I plead with you, for the sake of tomorrows Ghana teach your students more than just photosynthesis, linear equations and comprehension. Let them come out of school as leaders with the confidence to achieve whatever dreams they envisage.

If u teach them to cheat today, they will wear mask tomorrow, take up arms, break into your home, rob u of your spouse and turn u into a widow(er)
Let's make the right choice today for tomorrow.

Finaly, I throw a challenge to WAEC, GES and all institutions that are stakeholders in the education of Ghanaians to see to it that this act discontinues. Thank you.