WAEC: Over 1.57m Candidates for Exams in 19,000 Centres Nationwide

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Over 1.57 million candidates are sitting for the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) across Nigeria.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, who made this known in Abuja yesterday, while monitoring the conduct of the exams at Federal Government Girls’ College, Bwari, and Government Girls Secondary School, Dutse, said the examination is holding in 19,000 centers across the nation.

Echono expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the exams and said aside from the disruptions witnessed by candidates in the South-east, where some candidates were stopped from writing their exams due to the sit at home order in the region, the conduct of the 2021 WASSCE was peaceful and stress free.

“We are very pleased that all around the country, exams are going on peacefully. We have a total of over 19,000 exams centres across the country over 1.57miillion candidates registered for their exams and beside the disruptions we had on September 13th in the southeast where some of our candidates were stopped from doing the exams, it is a peaceful and stressful examination,” he added.

He confirmed that the examination centers mostly complied with standards and ethics of examinations.

According to the Permanent Secretary, the number of cases of examination malpractices witnessed during internal examinations in public schools were low compared to private schools.

“We don’t see much of malpractices in internal examinations like this because these are students who are already in school, but the only place where we have one or two cases is where examiners in private schools try to assist the students,” he revealed.

Echono further disclosed that the federal government was addressing incidences and cases of examination malpractices recorded during tertiary admission exams and would arrest any person found culpable.

“We are pursuing very hard more cases, incidence or possibilities of examinations malpractice we have a zero tolerance for examinations malpractice, we punish and arrest any person found culpable and ensure that immunity is restored to our system.

“We do not have challenges this year in terms of preparing the students aside the COVID-19 we have situations in some states that had to close schools down but we made alternative arrangements especially exit classes to take this examinations so we are satisfied with the arrangements.

“We collate examinations malpractices at the end of the examinations , we collaborate with examination bodies like JAMB, exam ethics-an NGO to fish out culprits because we have a lot of miscreant who are perpetrating and deceiving people, we are going to undertake a general overhaul for all those offering so called services to candidates,” he added.