Candidates sitting for the 2015 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the Ashanti region have begun casting doubts over their performance with some planning to register for the private WASSCE as an alternative.
Most of the candidates are unhappy because their preparation towards the examination was inadequate due to the current erratic power supply.
A total of 268771 candidates are sitting for the 2015 WASSCE across Senior High Schools in the country.
The Ashanti region has the highest number with 62,472 candidates as against the Upper region which is the lowest with 7060 candidates sitting for the exams.
The examinations which will last for one month come at a time when the country is confronted with incessant erratic power supply now referred to as ‘Dumsor’.
A visit to schools such as the Kumasi Girls, Adventist, Asanteman and the Islamic Senior High Schools all in the Ashanti region revealed that most of the candidates were present and a few number of them absent.
Both RawGist and I have been trying to sound the alarm but almost none want to listen or help.
“The effects of noise pollution on cognitive task performance have been well-studied. Noise pollution impairs task performance at school and at work, increases errors, and decreases motivation. Reading attention, problem solving, and memory are most strongly affected by noise”.
The noise pollution in Ghana is at insane levels and it is destroying people’s lives, the future of children and the future of Ghana itself.
I believe noise always will be a significant negative factor as related to examination outcomes.
I have taken the following few excerpts from Medscape.com which among other noise dangers speaks about the health impacts of noise on children. Medscape is an online reference service for the medical profession.
Medscape declares:
“The WHO (World Health Organisation) has documented seven categories of adverse health effects of noise pollution on humans. Much of the following comes from the WHO Guideline on Community Noise………..
Children are at risk as well. Children who live in noisy environments have been shown to have elevated blood pressures and elevated levels of stress-induced hormones.
The effects of noise pollution on cognitive task performance have been well-studied. Noise pollution impairs task performance at school and at work, increases errors, and decreases motivation. Reading attention, problem solving, and memory are most strongly affected by noise. Two types of memory deficits have been identified under experimental conditions: recall of subject content and recall of incidental details. Both are adversely influenced by noise. Deficits in performance can lead to errors and accidents, both of which have health and economic consequences.
Cognitive and language development and reading achievement are diminished in noisy homes, even though the children’s schools may be no noisier than average. Cognitive development is impaired when homes or schools are near sources of noise such as highways and airports. Noise affects learning, reading, problem solving, motivation, school performance, and social and emotional development. These findings suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the effects of noise on the ability of children to learn and on the nature of the learning environment, both in school and at home. Moreover, there is concern that high and continuous environmental noise may contribute to feelings of helplessness in children.
Noise produces negative after-effects on performance, particularly in children. It appears that the longer the exposure, the greater the effect. Children from noisy areas have been found to have heightened sympathetic arousal indicated by increased levels of stress-related hormones and elevated resting blood pressure. These changes were larger in children with lower academic achievement. As a whole, these findings suggest that schools and daycare centers should be located in areas that are as noise-free as possible.
Children, the elderly, and those with underlying depression may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they may lack adequate coping mechanisms. Children in noisy environments find the noise annoying and report a diminished quality of life”.
many people are doing upgrading so wace should be alert because this very bad how can someone with bad performance pay money exchange result with innocent person.and also help student to pass to enter into universities, never do the grading system so high.