WAEC to Bar Students, Deregister Schools to Curb Exanimation Malpractice

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has approved stringent sanctions against candidates, supervisors, and schools involved in examination malpractice.

A statement from the acting Head of Public Affairs at the WAEC office in Yaba, Demianus Ojijeogu, noted that the approval was made at the 70th meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) of the council held from Thursday to Saturday last week in Lagos.

In the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice and after diligent deliberations, the committee approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice, as prescribed by the Rules and Regulations governing the conduct of WAEC examinations.

It approved that the entire results of candidates involved in proven cases, which attracted Cancellation of Entire Results (CER), be cancelled, while subject results of those involved in proven cases, which attracted Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR), be also cancelled.

According to the council, some candidates will suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the WAEC examinations for a certain number of years, and some schools will be derecognised for a specified number of years or have their recognition completely withdrawn.

It added that supervisors found wanting in the discharge of their examination duties would be formally reported to their employers and blacklisted while some invigilators would be reported to the appropriate authorities for disciplinary action.

“The decisions of the committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools duly informed by the council.

“However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the committee would be released,” the statement 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 the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates and private candidates.

Its statutory Chairman is the Chief Government Nominee on Council and Director of Basic and Secondary Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.

At the meeting, the committee also considered special cases, clemency appeals from WASSCE for school candidates in 2020, and restitution cases for various years.

It received a report on the statistics of entries and results for WASSCE for private candidates (2019-second series), and WASSCE for private candidates (2020-first series).