BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
THE authorities of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) have deregistered and fined two secondary schools in Ebonyi State for alleged examination malpractice.
The Commissioner for Education in the state, Onyebuchi Chima, made this known while expressing dissatisfaction about the development, in his address to principals of secondary schools in the state, at the Urban Secondary School, Abakaliki.
Chima noted that his office received a letter from WAEC, warning some schools against examination malpractice and announcing the deregistration of two secondary schools with N500,000 penalty.
He said his office frowned at examination malpractice in schools, both private and public, and regretted that WAEC did not give the state education ministry the benefit of the doubt, via information about any act of examination malpractice in schools, before taking disciplinary action.
The Commissioner emphasised that his office was ready at all times to punish principals of secondary schools, who allowed exam malpractice, to avert its negative consequences on students.
He further requested principals to go for students’ WAEC registration, which he said was in progress and warned them not to collect WAEC unapproved fees as well as fees not approved by the Ministry of Education.
The President of ANCOPS, Donatus Ovuoba, appreciated Chima for his positive coordination of state education activities and appealed that the schools’ monitoring team be made to be civil in their duties, noting that “some of them disturb in the schools and distract students writing examinations.”
The Commissioner, however, directed the immediate removal of two principals of secondary schools – Community Secondary School, Eziga, in Onicha Local Government Area and Uburu Secondary School, in Ohozara Local Government Area, for the indictment of their schools.
