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• Council bars students for 2 years, derecognise schools
By Gabriel Dike
The Nigeria Examinations Committee (NCE) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has decided the fate of 262,803 candidates whose results were withheld for alleged exam malpractice in the May/June the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The 262,803 school candidates represent 16.29 percent of 1,613,733 candidates, who sat for the examination in over 20,877 recognized secondary schools in the country.
The decision of NEC ended two months of anxiety of by candidates, who required the results to process their admission into public and private tertiary institutions.
The Education Report learnt that some of the candidates wrote the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as awaiting results candidates and requires the results to process their admission.
Former Head of National Office (HNO), Mr. Patrick Areghan, while announcing the release of the school exam results in August, said the results of 262,803 candidates are being withheld in connection with various reports cases of exam malpractice.
His words: “The council will continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice. Schools, supervisors’, teachers and candidates perpetrating this evil were not helping the educational system. It is the child whose future is being destroyed. Parents must stop funding the so-called ‘expo’ for their children, it does not help.
“We can assure you that perpetrators and beneficiaries of such ‘help’ will never go unpunished. This must not be allowed to continue. It is our collective responsibility to defeat this evil.”
The former HNO said all reported cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate committee of the council for consideration and final decisions.
He stressed that NEC decision would be communicated to the affected candidates through their various schools in due course.
The resolution of NEC meeting signed by WAEC acting Head, Public Affairs, Mrs. Moyosola Adesina said the committee, which is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on examination-related matters in Nigeria, meets twice a year to consider matters relating to the conduct of WASSCE for school and private candidates.
She said membership of the committee is drawn from the states’ Ministries of Education and the Department of Education of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, ANCOPSS and universities. It also includes the Registrar to Council, Head of the Nigeria National Office, Head of Test Development Division (TDD) and Head of Test Administration Division (TAD), with the chief government nominee on council being its statutory chairman.
The resolution said at the 76th meeting, the committee received and considered reports on the conduct of WASSCE for school candidates, 2023, as well as irregularity cases arising from the conduct of the examination.
Adesina said the committee, after considering the various reported cases of malpractice in WASSCE for school candidates, 2023, approved the appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice, as prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the council’s examinations.
The NEC directed that the entire results of candidates proven to have been involved in examination malpractice, which attract the penalty of cancellation of entire results, be cancelled, while subject results of candidates proven to have been involved in examination malpractice, which attract the penalty of cancellation of subject results be similarly cancelled.
“Some candidates will also suffer other sanctions, such as being barred from sitting the council’s examinations for two years. Some schools will be derecognised for a specified number of years or have their recognition completely withdrawn. “Consequently, some supervisors that were found wanting in the discharge of their examination duties will be formally reported to their employers and blacklisted by the council. At the same time, some principals and invigilators will also be reported to their supervising authorities for disciplinary action,’’ the resolution stated.
The statement said the resolutions of the committee will be implemented without delay, and the council will duly inform the affected candidates and schools. Subsequently, the results of candidates exonerated by the committee will be released without further delay.
