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Pressure to inflate school-based assessment marks

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Pressure to inflate school-based assessment marks

Mr Osei teaches Economics at a private senior high school in Kumasi with 54 WASSCE candidates. At a staff meeting the proprietor announces that the school's pass rate fell last year and that, from now on, every teacher must enter at least 24 out of 30 for the school-based assessment (SBA) component 'so that our candidates are not disadvantaged'. Later, in private, he asks Mr Osei to add five marks to the SBA of a striker whose parents pay full fees and who needs a C6 to read Business Administration. Mr Osei's records show 11 candidates with genuine SBA scores below 15 because they missed two class tests and a group project; he has the marked scripts and the attendance register. The proprietor says: 'SBA is internal. Nobody checks. And remember your contract is renewed in September.' The school's examination officer has already asked teachers to submit marks 'by Friday, no questions'.

1. Identify the professional, ethical and regulatory standards engaged and explain why the claim that 'SBA is internal, nobody checks' is false.

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Standards engaged

  • Assessment integrity. SBA is a component of the WASSCE for school candidates, not a private school record. Marks submitted become part of a national certificate.
  • NTC Code of Professional Conduct. Teachers are required to be honest, fair and impartial in assessment and not to falsify records; a licensed teacher who does so risks disciplinary action and loss of licence.
  • National Teachers' Standards, Professional Values and Attitudes. Integrity, fairness and respect for all learners - a fabricated mark for one fee-paying student is discrimination against the other 53.
  • WAEC examination regulations. Falsification of continuous assessment is examination malpractice and can attract cancellation of results for individuals or the centre, and sanctions against the school and the teachers involved.
  • Public service and child-protection duties. Parents and tertiary institutions rely on these grades; a false C6 places a student in a programme he cannot survive.

Why 'nobody checks' is false

  1. SBA records are subject to moderation and sample verification; WAEC and GES can demand scripts, schemes and attendance evidence.
  2. Internal inconsistency is easy to detect - a candidate whose SBA rises from 12 to 24 with no new evidence, or a whole cohort clustered at exactly 24, is a red flag.
  3. Investigation can be triggered by a single complaint from a parent, a colleague or a candidate, and by audit of the centre.
  4. The claim is also ethically irrelevant: undetected dishonesty is still dishonesty, and the annual contract is not a lawful reason to falsify a national record.

2. Set out, in order, what Mr Osei should do and what he should record. Distinguish clearly between legitimate remediation and falsification.

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Order of action

  1. Do not alter any mark. Submit only the marks supported by evidence.
  2. Verify and complete the evidence file now: marked scripts, mark sheets, attendance register, project briefs and submission dates for all 54 candidates, dated and signed.
  3. Respond to the proprietor in writing, politely and factually: the marks submitted are the assessed marks; SBA marks that are not supported by evidence would expose candidates and the school to malpractice proceedings; request any contrary instruction in writing.
  4. Inform the head teacher (if a different office) and the examination officer of the standards being applied, keeping copies.
  5. Escalate if pressure continues: district GES directorate, WAEC branch office, NTC, and the GNAT local secretary for advice and representation.
  6. Seek a lawful route to help the 11 weak candidates: a documented make-up assessment or additional task under school policy, marked on the same criteria as everyone else, with the results added to the record only if the policy permits late submission.

Legitimate remediation vs falsification

  • Legitimate: extra classes, a re-test open to all, an agreed school policy for missed assessments, feedback, parental contact - anything that gives a student a genuine opportunity to earn marks.
  • Falsification: changing a recorded score, adding marks for a fee-paying student, or setting a minimum pass mark for the cohort. These produce a mark that no evidence supports.

Records to keep: the written request and refusal, dates and times of conversations with a witness where possible, the untouched original mark sheets, and the school's assessment policy.

3. The school now asks how to prevent this situation recurring. Propose a quality-assurance system for SBA that fits a small private school with limited staff.

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Design principles: cheap, evidence-based, transparent, and hard to fake without collusion.

  1. Written assessment policy. Number and weighting of assessments per term, the rule for missed tests, and who may authorise a make-up. Approved by the board and given to parents at registration.
  2. Departmental marking schemes before marking. The HOD (or, in a small department, a subject partner from a neighbouring school) approves the scheme and moderates a sample of 5–10 scripts per class each term; discrepancies above an agreed margin trigger re-marking.
  3. Evidence file per class. Scripts, mark sheets and a simple class assessment record kept in the school office, not only in the teacher's bag - so a teacher cannot be pressured into changing marks in isolation, and cannot be accused falsely.
  4. Double-entry submission. The teacher submits a signed mark sheet; the examination officer checks it against the record and both sign.
  5. Statistically visible pattern checks. Flag cohorts with no spread, sudden upward revisions, or candidates whose rank changes sharply between mock and SBA.
  6. Separation of money and marks. Fees and grading handled by different officers; no staff member discusses a student's grade and a parent's payment in the same conversation.
  7. Training and protection. Brief all staff on malpractice rules and on the NTC Code, and confirm in writing that a teacher will not be penalised for refusing to falsify a record. A named whistleblowing route to the proprietor's board, not only to the proprietor.
  8. Student and parent communication. A short briefing each year on how SBA works and what counts as malpractice - this reduces both pressure and rumour.