Ghana’s Education Minister

Unopposed in principle to online exams

By Benson Afful

The pandemic has disrupted the academic calendar of the schools, and there are fears it could delay the start of the next academic year in September.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has said he is not opposed to universities conducting their examinations online so long as they can do so and can ensure the participation of all their students.

For the first time in the country’s history, universities having to devise innovative ways to provide lessons and conduct exams as schools remain closed until further notice as part of measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19.

Many universities have been organizing lectures online, and the decision by some to conduct end-of-semester exams online has sparked resistance among some students. Who believe there are many challenges with that mode of contact that school authorities have not addressed.

Reacting to the issue in a media interview, the education minister said if universities can conduct exams online, the ministry would not object unless the mode of the exams disenfranchises some students.

One of the public universities, the Ghana Institute of Journalism, issued a communique containing the revised academic calendar for the second semester 2019/2020 academic year that online exams will be held for their students. The communique provided modalities for how the exams, scheduled for May 25 to June 12, will be conducted.

Some students at the institute, however, expressed their reservations about the decision to conduct exams online, pointing to challenges such as the cost and reliability of internet services.

Currently, it is not clear when schools across the country will reopen as cases of the novel coronavirus keep going up. The pandemic has disrupted the academic calendar of the schools, and there are fears it could delay the start of the next academic year in September.