By Ragan M. Conteh

About 150,000 students are said not to be taking the West African Senior School Certificate (WASSCE) Examinations this year.

The students were initially pronounced by the West Africa Examinations Council to be highly qualified to sit to the public exam.

But have been rejected based on allegations that heads of school did not submit their Continuous Assessment Scores (CAS) to the ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education.

According to sources, 80% of those students who have been deprived of taking the WASSCE are from the Western Area and North-West region, Bombali, Kambia, Karene districts.

Questions have been asked why is it that most of the affected schools are from the aforementioned regions.

A critic asked: is the ministry telling the public that those heads of school are not competent enough to handle the affairs of their schools? What are they doing to address the issues? Does CAS the only requirement for WASSCE these days?

The Opposition Chief Whip further stated that if the government does not give a second thought on its decision, the country will continue to have more hooligans, drug addicts, prostitutes and an acute in the poverty rate.

One of the principals of the affected schools mentioned that since last year when WAEC introduced the CAS system they were not provided enough training at schools.

With the training, he said, the knowledge gained would have aided them in using the system efficiently and effectively.

He pointed out that many schools did not have IT experts to carry out the tasks at the time.

And since they did not meet the criteria none of their candidates were admitted for the exams.

Opposition Chief Whip called on the attention of the President to consider this unfortunate development that has inhibited the future of the young generation in the country.

The Opposition Chief, Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara had inevitably expressed his dissatisfaction over the unforeseen occurrence about the educational system.

He noted that at the country is in a  debilitating moment as  majority of the country’s youthful population have become addicted to Kush taking and that the ‘unaddicted’ ones who have pawned their loyalty to be the next set of leaders have been made frustrated by an institution that has determined their way out.