The Member of Parliament for Pru East, Emmanuel Boam, has accused the former Akufo-Addo administration of deliberately weakening examination systems to allow widespread cheating during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). He claims the move was intended to artificially enhance results under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) policy.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, the MP alleged that lax supervision and poor examination controls enabled students to pay what he called “examination support levies,” which facilitated malpractice. He further claimed that some candidates gained access to examination halls with mobile phones, practices he said boosted pass rates beyond what was academically earned.
According to Mr. Boam, the compromised examination environment created a misleading impression that the Free SHS programme had delivered exceptional academic improvements.
“There hasn’t been any organised and well-orchestrated examination malpractice than what we saw under the past government,” he asserted. “It was properly coordinated between institutions that were compelled to align.”
He criticised the practice of evaluating school heads solely based on WASSCE outcomes despite persistent infrastructural and logistical challenges. “How do you tie the rating of schools to WASSCE results and threaten headteachers with removal when they lack the basic resources to run their institutions?” he questioned.
Mr. Boam further alleged that some students were instructed to contribute to an “examination support levy,” claiming that groups of teachers solved exam questions outside examination centres and passed them through invigilators to candidates.
“The system was so compromised that students were asked to pay money for examination support, and you had groups of teachers solving questions elsewhere and passing them on to invigilators,” he alleged.
The MP has called on the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, to establish a commission of enquiry to investigate the alleged malpractices and their impact on the integrity of Ghana’s education system.
