THE West African Examination Council (WAEC) has said there has been no leakage of examination papers for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Rather, the council said it had received information regarding examination malpractices in examination halls and planned cheating patterns at some of the centres as a result of poor supervision and invigilation.
A statement issued on Tuesday by Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Council’s national office said measures including sanctioning and investigation of suspects, had been taken to address the challenges.
It said the appointment of some supervisors and invigilators had been annulled or withdrawn pending further sanctions while inspection and monitoring at the various centres had been beefed up.
A number of candidates suspected to have been involved in the malpractice, it said were being investigated, adding that all scripts of schools where cheating has been reported would be scrutinised.
In relation to websites aiding the malpractices, he said formal complaint had been lodged to the Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for investigation.
Delving into the modus operandi of reported “pre-arranged cheating,” the statement said in some cases, school authorities had created hideouts where teachers knowledgeable in the subject area waited for the question paper packets to be opened.
Snapshots of the questions, it said were then taken, solved and answers sent to candidates in the examination hall in addition to the smuggling of mobile phones to the examination hall by candidates awaiting solutions.
It said there were some website operators who connived with some invigilators and supervisors and received snapshots of the question papers from the centres after the question paper packets were opened.
According to the statement, they would then solve the questions and post the answers on their websites and the WhatsApp groups of candidates who have paid for their services.
Despite the malpractices, the examination body noted that a great number of candidates had conducted themselves very well and due diligence would be followed to ensure fairness to all.
“The Council urges all stakeholders including members of the public to collaborate with it to safeguard the integrity of the examinations and certificates awarded” it said.
More than 340,000 candidates including 175,231 females from 987 public and private senior high schools (SHS) are sitting for the examination that begun on April 15, year at 707 centres nationwide. It is scheduled to end on June 7.
For the first time, the WAEC introduced biometric verification of candidates before allowed entrance into examination as part of measures to curb cases of impersonation recorded in previous years.
BY TIMES REPORTER
