NDC’s claim of introducing National Standardized Test is ‘misleading and dishonest’

The former Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng, has described as “misleading and dishonest” claims that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is set to introduce the National Standardized Test (NST).

According to him, the NST was first implemented in 2021 under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and has already seen three nationwide assessments.

“The claim that the NDC government is set to ‘introduce’ a National Standardized Test (NST) is misleading and dishonest. The NST was first implemented in 2021 under the NPP administration, with three nationwide assessments conducted, ” Kwarteng stated.

Providing a breakdown of the test’s history, he noted that:

December 17, 2021 – The first NST was conducted for 470,768 Primary 4 students from 15,391 schools across the country.
2022 – Over 1.5 million pupils from Primary 4 and Primary 2 in public and selected private schools participated in the second NST.
July 2024 – The third NST was held, assessing 895,685 students at Primary 4 and Primary 6 levels.

Kwarteng emphasized that governance is a continuous process and urged the current administration to acknowledge policies initiated by previous governments.

“Given these facts, any attempt to present the NST as a new initiative of the current government is misleading. Governance is a continuous process, and there is nothing wrong with acknowledging the history of policies and giving credit where it is due,” he added.

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