BY FOLASHADE SHIYANBOLA
THE Nigeria Examinations Committee of the West African Examinations Council has said that there was a decline in examination malpractice during the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates 2020.
This was disclosed at the 70th meeting of the Committee held from Thursday, 10th to Saturday, 12th December, 2020 at the WAEC Testing and Training Centre, Ogba, Lagos.
In a release signed by the Acting Head, Public Affairs, WAEC, Demianus Ojijeogu, the committee also commended the Council for braving all odds to successfully conduct and release the results of WASSCE for School Candidates 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It, however, urged the Federal and State Ministries of Education to assist the Council through the monitoring and inspection of examination centres in their domain during the conduct of WASSCE.
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.
During the meeting, the Committee received reports on irregularities, special and clemency cases, arising from the conduct of WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2019-Second Series and WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2020-First Series.
The Committee also considered a report on the conduct of WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020, as well as irregularity cases, arising from the conduct of the examination.
In the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice, the committee, after diligent deliberations, approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice, as prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the Council’s examinations.
It also 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 similarly cancelled.
With regard to the General Résumé of the Chief Examiners’ Reports on WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020, the Committee noted the observations by the Chief Examiners that the standard of the papers compared favourably with those of previous years and that the questions were within the scope of the syllabuses as well as the abilities of the candidates.
They also reported that the rubrics were devoid of ambiguity; the marking schemes were comprehensive, accommodating possible candidates’ responses and the marks distributions were equitably done.
The Committee noted the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates as reported by the Chief Examiners and the suggested remedies for the weaknesses.
It noted the benefits of the Chief Examiners’ Report and appealed to Directors in the various State Ministries of Education, the All Confederation of Nigeria Principals of Secondary Schools and all relevant stakeholders to continue to sensitise their teachers on the efficacy of the Reports in the improvement of teaching and learning in schools.
The statement said, “In addition, some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the Council’s examinations for a certain number of years, some schools will be derecognised for a specified number of years or have their recognition completely withdrawn, some Supervisors that were found wanting in the discharge of their examination duties will be formally reported to their employers and blacklisted while some invigilators will also 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 will be released.
“The Committee also commended President Buhari’s administration for approving the establishment of the National Secondary Schools Commission in 2019 to oversee the operations of secondary schools in Nigeria and asked that all hands must be on deck to ensure the successful take-off of the Commission which it sees as a veritable tool in the fight against examination malpractice.”
