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The Pusiga District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr.Alhassan Abugbila has expressed regret that his first attempt to organize Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) English language mock exercise in the district has turned sour.

The DCE’s comments comes in the wake of a controversy that emanated from Question 18 of the English paper for the district mock examination that asked the candidates to choose from a set of possible answers, the one which was nearest in meaning to the word ‘canvassed’. This was captured in the sentence: “Nana Addo, popularly known as ‘all-die-be-die,' canvassed for votes.”

Pictures of the question went viral on social media since it emerged and many have criticized the Pusiga District Assembly for the question.

Speaking to Graphic Online, the DCE indicated that, he contracted a private examination body whose name he did not mention, to set the questions but when the questions were brought for the candidates to answer them, the school authorities could not go through them due to time constraints.

Apology

Mr.Abugbila has therefore rendered apologies to the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the mishap describing it as "unfortunate and unintentional".

He further explained that the issue of contracting private examination bodies to conduct such exercises was common and formed part of measures by the various district assemblies to contribute their quota towards complementing efforts at promoting quality education.

"It is therefore unfortunate that my first attempt to do this has become a challenge” he lamented.

Remedy

He conceded that since the candidates had already written the paper the only way was to strike out that particular question that sparked the controversy.

The Upper East Regional Director of Education,Madam Janet Kawia said since it was the Pusiga District that organized the mock exercise, the only suggestion she could offer was for that particular question to be struck out and the candidates given a bonus mark.

Madam Kawia also noted that necessary measures would be put in place to avoid such unfortunate incidents in the future.

The Regional NPP Communications Director, Mr.Edmund Awuni for his part said although the party’s leadership had met with Mr Abugbila over the matter, it was yet to decide on the way forward.