Examination malpractice worries WAEC – Official

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Saturday identified examination malpractice as a major challenge militating against its operations in its 64 years of existence.

The council’s Head of Test Administration, Mrs Frances Iweha-Onukwu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

According to her, the scourge is a canker worm that has eaten deep in the fabric among candidates, not only in Nigeria, but also in member countries.

She, however, noted that the council was gradually winning the war as it kept introducing new cutting-edge technology to stop the ugly trend.

“One major challenge we are battling against, since inception, has been that of examination malpractice, but we are happy that we are winning the war.

“We know that the candidates might want to beat our technology, but we will continue to make sure that we check them in any way they try,’’ she told NAN.

According to Iweha-Onukwu, another major challenge is the ‘rogue website’.

“Tackling ‘rogue website’ has been a serious challenge the board is facing,’’ she said.

NAN reports that a rogue website is one that subverts a legitimate web site by appearing to replace it.

Iweha-Onukwu said that perpetrators of such act use rogue website to distract lazy candidates, who, instead of studying hard for their examination, busy themselves logging onto the rogue website.

She, however, said that many operators of the fake sites were being apprehended with the help of security agents.

The official said her desire was to see the council compete favourably with international examination bodies like the Educational Testing Service (ETS) among others. (NAN)