HEADMASTER FAILS TO REGISTER 14 BECE CANDIDATES (PAGE 11)

Story: Chris Nunoo, Wa

THE future of 14 students of Nyagli Junior High School in the Wa municipality who wrote the just- ended Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) is in the balance.
This is because of the failure of the headmaster of the school, Mr Abu K. Salifu, to register them after he allegedly collected various sums of money ranging from GH¢14 to GH¢18 as registration fees from them.
Mr Salifu, who was asked to report at the Wa Police Station after he had been reported to the police by one of the aggrieved candidates, was arrested and remanded in prison custody by a Wa District Magistrate’s Court presided over by Nana Alfred Rockson Kpodo.
He pleaded not guilty to a charge of defrauding by false pretence and is to reappear on May 13, 2008.
The Upper West Regional Police Commander, ACP Robert Ayalingo, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said the affected students were turned away when they went to the examination centre to write their examination.
That, he said, was because their names could not be traced in the register of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
Mr Ayalingo said six out of the 14 aggrieved candidates had so far reported the matter to the police.
The Wa Municipal Director of Education, Madam Scholastica Gyiele, confirmed the story and explained that the BECE candidates Mr Salifu should have registered were eight. However, her outfit later got to know that Mr Salifu had as many as 124 candidates, including the eight candidates from the Nyagli Junior High School.
“We did not know where he got the extra 116 candidates from”, she pointed out and said Mr Salifu even delayed the registration of the 124 students until her office intervened.
She said a relative of Mr Salifu later had to mobilise the money paid by the 124 students for the municipal education directorate to go ahead with the registration.
After the 124 candidates had been registered, Madam Gylele said, Mr Salifu still went round to collect money from other candidates with the assurance that he would register them for the BECE.
She said 14 students later reported at the examination centre on the first day of the BECE but when the officials looked through the WAEC registration records their names could not be found.
“Fortunately, Mr Salifu was around at the time the students came so we told the students to iron out the issue with him”, she said and added that the students later left the premises with Mr Salifu.