West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has cancelled the entire results of some candidates who sat its 2019 private series and 2020 school-based West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCEs) and also barred them from sitting for its future examinations for a certain number of years.
The examination body also banned some schools for life or some years from presenting candidates for its future exams even as it is also planned to formally report all exam officials including supervisors and invigilators with proven cases of malpractice against them during the various exams to their appropriate authorities for sanction.
Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Nigeria, Mr Demianus Ojijeogwu, made this known in a statement, on Monday, without giving statistics nor names of individuals and institutions involved.
Tribune Online recalls that a total of 215,149 (representing 13. 98 per cent) of 1, 538,445 candidates, who sat the 2020 school-based WASSCE were involved in malpractice according to WAEC’s Head of Nigeria Office, Mr Patrick Areghan while releasing the results of the exam about two months ago. And that 65.24 per cent of the entire candidates passed the exam with minimum credit in at least five subjects including English language and mathematics.
However, Ojijeogu said the latest decisions were made by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on examination-related matters in Nigeria at its 70th meeting held in Lagos.
According to him, the committee, after diligent deliberations on various reported cases of malpractice, approved appropriate sanctions in all the established cases of malpractice as prescribed by the Rules and Regulations governing the conduct of the council’s examinations.
He said all the decisions including that the results of candidates who were exonerated after investigations would be released are to be implemented without delay and that all the affected persons and schools would be duly informed by the council.
Mr Ojijeogu also said committee equally considered cases of clemency appeals by some candidates in the previous exams who cheated while writing their papers and now on restitution mission based on their newfound faith.
He noted that on the general résumé of the 2020 WASSCE for school candidates, the committee considered the observations by the Chief Examiners that the standard of the papers was compared favourably with those of previous years and that the questions were within the scope of the syllabuses, and abilities of the candidates.
“The Chief Examiners also reported that the rubrics were devoid of ambiguity; the marking schemes were comprehensive, accommodating possible candidates’ responses and the marks distributions were equitably done.
Similarly, he pointed out that, the committee also noted the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates as reported by the Chief Examiners and the suggested remedies for the weaknesses.
The committee, however, commended the council, according to him, for successfully conduct and release the results of 2020 school-based WASSCE in spite of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While noting that malpractice in the council’s exam this year has reduced compared to previous editions, he said the committee called on WAEC to sustain the tempo in its fight against malpractice and also that the federal and state governments should join in the fight so as to jointly bring malpractice to its barest minimum in the country.
Tribune
