Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies (IFEST), Dr. Peter Anti, has said that the pressure to meet societal standards is one of the biggest drivers of examination malpractice in Ghana.
According to him, the factors contributing to cheating during national exams are multifaceted, but the strongest motivator is the desire to ensure students pass at all costs.
He was speaking in response to a Joy News GH Probe exposé which uncovered systemic cheating in the recent Basic Entrance Certificate Examinations (BECE).
The documentary revealed how some officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) alongside supervisors, headteachers, and invigilators allegedly traded academic integrity for financial gain.
Hidden cameras at two centres in Accra namely Derby Avenue RC Basic School and St. George’s Anglican Basic School captured invigilators openly demanding daily “tokens” of GHS60, supervisors receiving envelopes of GHS400, and candidates being asked to contribute to what they called “Aseda Offertory.”
Candidates were also caught smuggling mobile phones into exam halls, with some reportedly using AI tools like ChatGPT to generate answers. Supervisors acted as lookouts, warning invigilators whenever WAEC or National Security officials drew near.
Speaking on Joy News on September 8, Dr. Peter Anti said although the reasons for cheating in BECE are many, one of the biggest factors is the desire to meet societal standards.
“You cannot single out one factor and say this is the reason why people engage in examination malpractices. If it was like that, it would have been easy to deal with it,” he stated.
He explained, “One is the desire to meet certain standards that the society has set upon itself. In our system, every student will want to go to one of the best schools in the country. That pressure alone means that the school will have to help that student in order to achieve this objective.”
He added that schools themselves also stand to benefit.
“In helping that student, the school also benefits because that particular school would be projected as a school where all students score 100%,” he said.
Dr. Anti noted that schools also stand to gain from malpractice, as strong performance boosts their reputation and attracts more enrolment and shared a personal encounter.
“I’ve had an experience with a school proprietor and a headmaster, where the proprietor insisted that he was not going to allow the headmaster to spend money on examination malpractice, whereas the headmaster felt that in order to improve their enrolment he needed to do something,” he recalled.
The IFEST Executive Director added that parents are equally invested in the practice, as many are desperate to see their children placed in top schools.
“You wouldn’t want to go and beg or pay huge sums of money for the student to be placed in a particular school. So, if I can get my ward to go round the system and pass once and for all, why not?”
Below is the full documentary by Joy News ‘Dark World of BECE’:
