CID should investigate BECE leaks not BNI – Casely-Hayford

The Ministry of Education directed the country’s security agencies to investigate circumstances surrounding the leakage of some five Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) papers which led to their cancellation.

The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of pre-tertiary education, Alex Kyeremeh confirmed that the Ministry had turned to the security agencies for help as pressure mounts on the education sector to get to the bottom of the leaks.

“It [the cancellation of the results] came to us as a surprise and the Minister has directed us to refer the case to the security agencies to investigate WAEC [West African Examination Council] and come out to report to the whole country as to what exactly happened,” he said on Eyewitness News last Wednesday.

The Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo also indicated that the BNI had been directed to investigate the matter in an interview with Citi News.

However, according to Casely-Hayford, the CID should investigate the leakage of the BECE papers and not the BNI as it is a criminal issue and should be treated as such.

“I say the BNI [should not be involved], this is a CID matter. It is a criminal offence. Let the [CID] investigate and if it becomes the issue of National security, then it will be taken care of. But these are our local internal basic education examination questions,” he said on Citi FM‘s news analysis programme,The Big Issue on Saturday.

“This is not a BNI issue, we are not threatening ECOWAS or any international system. I think it’s wrong and it is because of the way we are thinking and the way we are not attacking issues, that’s what makes it wrong,” he added.

Five papers in the BECE were cancelled last Wednesday following reports by officials of WAEC that those papers had been ‘compromised.’

The cancelled papers include English Language 2, Religious and Moral Education 2, Science 2, and Mathematics 2 and Social Studies 2.

WAEC released a statement explaining the cancellation saying that “in addition to other sources, the papers have gone viral on social media especially Whatsapp messenger.”

The examination was initially scheduled to end last Friday but the cancelled papers will now be written on June, 29 and 30, 2015

The parent of a BECE candidate threatened to sue WAEC over the cancellation of the five papers.

According to Owusu Tawiah Johnson, the candidates were not responsible for the leaks and should not be made to suffer for the dereliction of duty by officials of the examination supervisory body.

“I have to go to court because if you say there was an examination leakage, who caused that? It is your fault which means that somebody at WAEC must be blamed and not the candidate,” he said.

Some students who were also unimpressed by the decision to cancel their exams have threatened to boycott the planned re-sit.