The Ministry of Education (MoE) has urged the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to verify information internally before making public statements that could unintentionally mislead or cast doubt on the Ministry's ongoing efforts.Following a brief visit to WAEC's offices on Tuesday, Minister of Education, Dr.

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Yaw Osei Adutwum, informed journalists that the results for the 2024 WASSCE would be released by December 29. He clarified that WAEC was nearing the completion of the marking process and working to ensure the timely publication of the results.

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However, WAEC has since disputed the Minister's comments, clarifying that the claim of an additional GHc25 million being released for its operational activities, and the assurance that results would be issued by or on December 29, 2024, were inaccurate.

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Head of Public Relations, WAEC, John Kapi told Graphic that “Without any formal meeting with the management team of WAEC, he addressed the media present, giving them assurances that results would be released by December 29. We wish to state that apart from a cheque for GH25 million that was issued on December 18, no further releases out of the outstanding GHS118 million have been made.

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“The Council awaits the release of the additional GHc35 million it has requested from the Ministry of Education to enable it to fix the broken-down scanners, conclude scanning of the objective test answer cards, and then process the results.”The Ministry of Education provided clarification in a statement released on Thursday, December 26, confirming that WAEC had formally acknowledged the receipt of a GHS 25,000,000 cheque.

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This was detailed in a letter dated December 20, 2024, and signed by the Head of the National Office of WAEC (Ref. No. HNO/GES/MOE/VOL.28/156).“This payment represents part of the Ministry’s financial commitment towards the 2024 WASSCE (School Candidates) examination fees,” it added.Subsequently, the Ministry stated that WAEC requested an additional GHS 35,000,000 to aid in the processing of the 2024 WASSCE results.

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The Ministry complied with this request and has since disbursed the necessary funds to WAEC.“It is therefore surprising to note that the WAEC PRO has publicly denied the receipt of the GHS 25,000,000 payment, despite official documentation confirming its acknowledgement,” it added.The Education Ministry emphasized that public statements of this nature must be grounded in verified information.

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As such, the Ministry urged the WAEC PRO to confirm facts internally before making any statements that could unintentionally mislead the public or undermine the Ministry’s efforts.“For emphasis sake, it is important to highlight that, from July 2024 to date, the Ministry has disbursed a total of GHS 167,976,815 to WAEC, in fulfilment of its financial obligations to the Council.

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We urge the public to remain calm as we work closely with WAEC to ensure the release of the 2024 WASSCE results,” it added.

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