The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has arrested about 10 supervisors for alleged involvement in examination malpractices in the ongoing Senior Secondary Certificate Examination in the country.
Head of WAEC Nigeria National Office Mr Patrick Areghan who disclosed this during supervision of the examination in four centres in Abuja said the arrest were made in Lagos, Kano, Beyelsa, and Kaduna states.
“Our major problem lies with the supervisors as only a few of them are reliable and it’s unfortunate these are the supervisors that were nominated by the various states ministry of education and we employed them. We don’t have the power to nominate any supervisors on our own we only made use of credible teachers supplied to us by the ministry,” he said.
He said: “But for a mere pot of porridge they sell their conscience and allow candidates to come into the examination hall with phones to snap question papers and post them on designated platforms.”
He noted that some of the supervisors belong to syndicate groups that run online platforms, saying, “The good news is we catch them and they don’t go unpunished as we are working hand in hand with the Nigerian police.”
While condemning the act by schools that duped some candidates after they collected money and don’t enroll them, he said it is not the fault of WAEC that they were not enrolled.
The WAEC Head who is impressed with the process, however, advised candidates to desist from any form of malpractices, saying those who employ the use of textbooks in examinations hall or impersonation would not get their results.
The most troubling one is the activities of roadside website operators whereby they post their so-called expo on digital platforms and use it to deceive gullible candidates and parents who pay for their wards to access these platforms. They are fake and even if they are not when will they have time to access those materials as examination is already going on,” he said.
Speaking, the Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo expressed satisfaction with the process and the deployment of technology in the authentication of candidates saying that has reduced malpractice.
He said: “Malpractices can occur in the examination centres with the connivance of the school authority and biometric machines /have reduced malpractice to infinitesimal, I will be surprised if I hear of any malpractice.”
The Principal of the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC) Orozo, Abuja Obabori Oyindamola said adequate preparation and having enough qualified teachers is a prerequisite to tackling malpractice.
RN
