• Council reads riot act to exam fraudsters, schools

By Gabriel Dike

The May/June 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would begin today in 22,229 secondary schools nationwide.

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) further disclosed that 1.8million secondary school students would sit for the school exam.

The Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Dr. Amos Dangut disclosed this at a briefing in Lagos to announce the start of the school exam on Tuesday.

Dangut said that WASSCE for school candidates would take place between Tuesday, April 30 and Monday, June 24, 2024 in Nigeria, spanning seven weeks and six days, adding, “the examination will be conducted in four WAEC member countries, namely: Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra-Leone and Liberia.

“A total of 1,814,344 candidates from 22,229 schools have registered for the examination. Out of this number, 902,328 are males, amounting to 49.73%, while 912,016 are females, which is 50.27% of the total candidature.

He explained that the statistics showed a further increase in the number of females and males respectively, compared to last year, which is an increase by 192,948.

Dangut said candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, made up of 197 papers. He further stated that about 30,000 secondary school teachers, nominated by various ministries of education, would supervise the examination.

The HNO assured Nigerians that the council has made adequate security arrangements to ensure a smooth conduct of the school exam.

He added: “We cannot feign ignorance of the level of insecurity in the country. Conducting examinations has been challenging. Instances of insecurity exist in many places across the country, and conducting examinations in insecurity-prone areas would require extra security arrangements.  “Consequently, we are liaising with the Inspector General of Police and state governments to provide adequate security to ensure that the examination is conducted nationally in a safe and secure environment.”

He warned that the council would decisively deals with candidates and examination functionaries who engage in acts of examination malpractice of any kind during the school exam.

He reiterated that the penalties for involvement in examination malpractice would be meted out to erring candidates, supervisors and schools upon establishment of culpability by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which is the highest decision-making organ of the council that sits on examination matters in Nigeria.

Dangut said the council, on its part, has rolled out several awareness campaigns nationwide, and organized seminars for school proprietors, principals, students and other key stakeholders, to sensitize them on the immediate and long-drawn effects of examination malpractice.

His words: “I call on parents and guardians to encourage their wards to study diligently and desist from engaging in any form of examination malpractice. The mass media must come in handy, as the effort to rid our nation of this menace is a collective responsibility. The various Ministries of Education should call their principals, teachers and other officials serving as inspectors and/or supervisors, to order.

“School principals and teachers should sensitize their students on the dangers of this terrible crime against humanity. Every candidate and examination functionary must play by the rules, which are well stipulated in the WAEC examination syllabuses and guidelines for the conduct of examination, issued to schools.  Erring schools would be derecognised; erring officials would be adequately punished, while erring candidates would lose their results, if found culpable.”

The WAEC boss used the opportunity to sound a note of warning to operators of rogue websites that WAEC would not condone their heinous acts during the conduct of the examination.

He also cautioned parents to desist from patronising these evildoers who are hell-bent on frustrating the efforts of WAEC.

The HNO said in line with the council’s tradition, the May/June 2024 results would be released 45 days after the conduct of the last paper, while the certificates would be printed and issued to schools in less than 90 days after the release of results.

Dangut further disclosed that results would be released along with the digital copies of candidates’ certificates, which can be accessed on the Digital Certificate platform.

His words: “All hands are on deck to ensure that WASSCE for school candidates, 2024, is hitch-free. However, non-adherence to the registration deadline is still a lingering challenge in preparation for examinations.

“It may surprise you to hear that even though entries were floated by December 5, 2023, and the registration exercise was scheduled to end on April 3, 2024, the council continued to extend its deadline on registration until late April, due to requests from different stakeholders. Such actions impact negatively on the preparation of pre-examination, examination and post-examination materials.”