There is growing outrage among Basic School teachers across Ghana, and it is boiling over into a full-blown rebellion against a deeply frustrating and insulting practice that is spreading like wildfire: District Directors of Education outsourcing end-of-term exam question setting to private contractors and external bodies.
Yes—you heard that right. Teachers teach all term, they manage overcrowded classrooms, handle discipline, provide mentorship, and sacrifice their time and resources… only to be told they are not “qualified enough” to set exam questions for the very students they taught.
Teachers Teach, But Strangers Set Their Questions?
For many dedicated Basic School teachers, it is difficult to understand how, after spending an entire term delivering lessons, guiding students, and ensuring curriculum coverage, they are then sidelined during the most crucial aspect of the academic cycle: assessment. In what appears to be a troubling contradiction, contractors or external individuals—often with no direct classroom involvement—are commissioned to set internal exam papers, which the same teachers must then administer and mark.
Educators are left asking: How is this logical? How does it promote quality education or teacher ownership of learner outcomes?
A widely circulated visual online shows young students diligently writing exams in a classroom, overlaid with a poignant message directed at District Directors of Education. It asks a burning question: “How is it that Basic School teachers teach for the term, yet internal exam questions are set by contractors or external people for the teacher to administer and mark?” The question captures the frustration and disillusionment of many teachers who feel professionally disrespected and undermined.
An Insult to Professional Integrity
Even more offensive, some District Directors have reportedly claimed that Basic School teachers are not capable of setting “standardized test questions.” For teachers who have trained, taught, assessed, and prepared generations of students for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) with success, this excuse is not only hollow—it is deeply insulting.
“Before this uncalled-for initiative by some greedy District Directors, who was setting the questions?” many ask. “And how did students manage to pass their BECE?” The answer is clear: it was the teachers—the very professionals now being sidelined—who prepared and assessed their students with integrity and competence.
And let us be clear: this practice violates the GES Teacher’s own Code of Conduct (Revised – June 2017). As stated in Part 3, Section 3.2, clause iii:
“A teacher shall set, mark and manage his/her own end of term examination(s).”
This provision is not optional. It is a binding professional expectation outlined by the Ghana Education Service itself. Ignoring it not only insults teachers—it undermines the law governing their work.
A Call to the Education Minister: Reset This Wrong!
In the midst of this turmoil, one name echoes with hope among teachers: Haruna Iddrisu, Ghana’s Minister of Education. Teachers trust him. They believe in his leadership. And they are now calling on him to intervene swiftly and decisively.
The call is simple: Reset this system. Restore the power and responsibility of assessment to the teachers who are in the classroom every day with these students. Stop the monetization of internal exams and respect the professional integrity of Ghana’s Basic School teachers.
Teachers across the nation are speaking with one voice. They are not asking—they are demanding—that this injustice be addressed. The Minister has a golden opportunity to earn the respect of the teaching community by standing with them and bringing an end to this practice.
Let the message ring loud and clear from every Basic School in Ghana: “We teach. We assess. And we must be trusted to do both.”
Published By: Justice Donkoh | GESHub.org
You hit the nail right on the head