The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced that six teachers and invigilators have been arrested for engaging in various examination malpractices during the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Speaking to JoyNews, John Kappi, the Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, reported that the arrests took place during the first week of the WASSCE. The arrested teachers, along with a significant number of students from both public and private schools across the country, were found involved in these malpractices.
According to Kappi, the teachers were apprehended for allegedly writing answers for candidates and committing other violations.
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The reports say some of the teachers were caught taking bribe money to illegally assist the WASSE candidates, while the use of banned foreign materials were discovered in numerous instances. In some cases, reports were received about answers being written on the board for candidates to copy.
“In terms of teachers, I can say so far, we have about six of them who have been picked up for various offences.
“The candidates are a lot of them. It is not easy to give the number right now. We are still putting together the figures, and as and when we are able to compile the list, we will be able to put out the figure.”
“We have picked up in some of the areas where we were told that they wanted to collect money, and then assist the candidates. We have realised that there has been a lot of… We set our monitors around – there were actually widespread examination malpractices.
“They were able to pick up a number of them. In fact, it’s overwhelming. We have looked at the numbers, and basically, it’s about them having foreign material on them and then, in some cases, there’s a report about them writing on the board for the candidates to copy,” he said.
Kappi assured that all individuals found guilty of these infractions would be punished according to the examination regulations. The seriousness of the situation was emphasized, and WAEC’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of the examination process was reiterated.
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Meanwhile, Serwaa Nyarko Senior High School in the Ashanti region reported that three out of its 792 registered WASSCE candidates have failed to attend the exams.
The Assistant Headmaster, Rev. Richard Benson, stated that attempts to contact two of the absent students had been unsuccessful. One of the absent candidates is known to have traveled abroad, while the whereabouts of the other two remain unknown. Currently, 789 students are actively participating in the exams at the school.
In an interview with JoyNews, Rev Benson said “Out of the 792, three are absent. One of the absentees has travelled outside the country, but for two, we do not know why.
“So currently we have 789 students sitting,” he said.
He also noted that no examination malpractice has been recorded at the school.
“We realised that the students move out frequently during the paper (ostensibly to urinate), so we had to restrict them,” he said.
