The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Offinso, Hon. Frank Owusu Amoah, has attributed the poor performance of candidates in the 2025 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) to what he describes as long-standing structural and policy failures under the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
Speaking in an interview on Angel Fm, the MCE questioned why anyone would be surprised by the students’ poor performance when, according to him, the necessary foundations for quality learning were not provided in earlier years.
“Why won’t the students fail while they write exams? They fail, and you still insist on passing them?” he remarked, insisting that the results merely reflect the consequences of decisions taken during the past administration.
Hon. Owusu Amoah emphasized the urgent need for educational infrastructure in Offinso, revealing that some students in the municipality still study under trees and compete with animals for space.
“Some students in Offinso still learn under trees, fighting with cows and snakes for that space. This happened under the NPP,” he stated.
He, however, noted that the current NDC administration has begun addressing these deficiencies by initiating school construction projects in the municipality.
The MCE argued that if concerns about the causes of poor academic performance are to be analysed, then “all factors must be examined with wisdom,” warning that failure to do so would result in worse outcomes in the future.
As an experienced educator, Hon. Owusu Amoah criticised what he described as a decline in discipline during the previous administration.
According to him, students were not allowed to repeat even when they performed poorly, and teachers were sometimes restricted from enforcing discipline in schools.
“Under the NPP, students were not repeated even if they were deserving of it. Even if students did wrong, teachers were not allowed to punish them. The level of indiscipline surged high during their tenure,” he said. “As a teacher all my life, I know that if a child is given their own will to do whatever they want, this is what will happen.”
Dismissing claims that the unavailability of past questions was responsible for the 2025 WASSCE performance, the MCE argued that the more fundamental challenge was the absence of textbooks and other essential learning materials in years past.
“We cannot blame the availability of past questions; there were no textbooks,” he stressed.
