Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Kwabena Tandoh says Ghana will go ahead with the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) scheduled for July 20, 2020, despite Nigeria pulling out.

His comment follows news of the Federal Government of Nigeria rescinding their decision to open schools and calling off the WASSCE following health and safety concerns of students in the country.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Kwabena Tandoh explained that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) was yet to notify Ghana of any such move by Nigeria.

However, he stated that WAEC's member countries had agreed to write the exam in August/September.

“All of them had agreed we had communication to that effect. While it was proposed that it was Ghana that was going to write a Ghana Exam, all of our member countries in a response from WAEC to the Director General or to my Director General to the Honourable Minister was that all of our member countries, and ‘all of our member countries’ means our five countries had agreed to write the August/September exams.

“We have not received any communication officially to the contrary and usually, we receive our communication from WAEC through official channels at the Ghana National Office and so if there is something in the news media we would at least wait for official communication. But as far as we are aware all member countries have agreed,” he said.

According to the Deputy Director-General of the GES, should WAEC corroborate media reports of Nigeria pulling out of the WASSCE, it would not halt plans in Ghana or in other member countries to go ahead with the WASSCE.

He said earlier incidents such as the 2013 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia had not stopped other WAEC member countries - Nigeria inclusive - from going ahead with their WASSCE examinations.

“It doesn’t change anything. Nigeria is still one of five countries. There are five countries, they all have equal vote and so we have had instances for example in 2013 when we had the Ebola crisis," the Deputy D-G said.

“The rest of the countries; when you have a majority of the countries say they’re going to write an exam, the rest of the countries go ahead, WAEC makes specific arrangements for countries that are unable to write and so I believe that if with Nigeria making that decision once we receive the communication it’s still not going to change a thing.”

Meanwhile, the timetable for the upcoming WASSCE, which has been submitted to the Ministry of Education, is expected to begin on Monday, July 20, 2020, with Project Work for Visual Arts candidates, while the theory papers will start from August 3, 2020, until September 5, 2020, when the five-week-long examination will be brought to an end with Principles of Cost Accounting and Technical Drawing.