Examination Malpractice: Committee lauds WAEC, education ministries over sanctions

The National Examination Committee (NEC) on Thursday in Lagos lauded West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for networking with state ministries of education nationwide in to stem examination malpractice.

The committee after its 64th meeting, particularly commended the collaborative efforts to identify and carry out disciplinary actions against perpetrators of examination malpractice.

NEC said such disciplinary actions were also carried out on supervisors and invigilators who aided and abetted examination malpractice during the 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates.

“The council noted the recurring cases of returned certificates, where candidates willingly made confessional statements to the effect that they were impersonated,’’ it said in its communique made available to our reporter.

The communique by Mr Damianus Ojijeogu, Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, said the committee received a report on irregularity, special and clemency cases arising from the conduct of the 2016 WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2016.

It that in the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice, the committee, after diligent deliberations, approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice.

This, it said, will be carried out as prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the council’s examinations.

“It approved that the entire results of candidates involved in proven cases, which attract Cancellation of Entire Results (CER) be cancelled, while subject results of those involved in proven cases, which attracts Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR) be similarly cancelled.

“Some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the council’s examinations for a certain number of years, while some schools will have WAEC recognition withdrawn or de-recognised for a specified number of years.

“The decisions of the committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools duly informed by the council.

“However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the committee will be released,’’ the communique said.

“Council agreed that apart from the National Universities Commission (NUC), details of such candidates such as examination numbers, certificate numbers and years of examination, should be made available to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

“It should also be made available to the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and posted on the council’s corporate website as well as published in national dailies twice a year.

“The committee, therefore, commended WAEC for liaising with the Ministries of Education in the states of the federation to identify and carry out disciplinary actions against such Supervisors and Invigilators for their roles in such shameful acts.’’

On the issue of appointment and deployment of supervisors during the conduct of the WASSCE, the committee advised that WAEC should continue with the practice of swapping supervisors during its examinations.

It added that such swapping should be monitored to ensure that supervisors do not connive with school authorities and staff of WAEC to compromise the process.

It was reported reports that the committee is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on examination-related matters in Nigeria.

It meets twice a year to consider matters relating to the conduct of the WASSCE for both the school and private candidates.