Curbing examination fraud through innovative technology in questions distribution systems

Owing to the worrying trend examination malpractice in Ghana poses to the quality of pretertiary external assessments, i.e. the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) respectively, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) in June 2021 commissioned a report on the 2020 WASSCE which detailed the causes of examination irregularities by the various actors in the examination value chain and called for a collective effort by all stakeholders led by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to identify and address the causes of examination irregularities, especially question leakages, and ensure a more credible certification system. One of the recommendations in Eduwatch’s WASSCE 2020 Report is the digitization of the examination questions distribution system to minimize the human influence in the questions transmission chain and eliminate fraud. This Policy Brief explores two key digitization options for enhanced questions security.