WASSCE: FG vows to punish candidates involved in exams malpractice

The Federal Government has warned candidates and schools against involvement in examination malpractices in the ongoing 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), across the country, saying anybody caught will be punished in accordance with the law.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, gave the warning on Monday while monitoring the exercise in some schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, where he also expressed satisfaction with the smooth and orderly conduct of the examination so far by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Over 1.57 million candidates are sitting for the examination in 19,425 recognized secondary schools, comprising 8,052 public and 11,373) private schools, spread across the country.

Echono disclosed that in the states where schools were closed down because of rising cases of attacks and kidnapping of students for ransom, alternative arrangements were made for the exit classes to take the examination.

He particularly warned against the practice where some private schools collude with candidates to commit massive examination fraud while stressing the zero-tolerance stance of the Federal Ministry of Education against examination malpractice.

He led top officials of the Ministry to monitor the exercise in Federal Government Girls College, Bwari and Government Girls Secondary School, Dutse Abuja, noting with satisfaction the adherence to COVID-19 protocols by both candidates and invigilators as it was observed that everyone wore facemask and temperature of candidates checked before allowed into the examination hall.

He said he particularly chose Monday for the monitoring of the exercise because Mathematics, which the candidates were sitting for, is a mandatory subject for every registered candidate, saying he was delighted that all the centres complied with all the standards and ethics of examinations.

Echono further noted that aside from the disruptions witnessed by candidates in the South-east, where some candidates were stopped from taking their examinations, the conduct of the 2021 WASSCE has been peaceful and hitch-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 1.57 million candidates registered for the exams and besides the disruptions we had on Sept 13th in the southeast where some of our candidates were stopped from doing the exams, it is a peaceful and hitch-free examination”

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

He said: “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”.

“We are pursuing very hard more cases, incidence or possibilities of examination 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.”

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Buhari Urges MTN For Quality Service, Downward Price Review In Cost Of Data, Other Services

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday at State House Abuja urged the MTN Group to make the available top-of-the-range service to its Nigerian subscribers…  FG vows to punish candidates involved in exams malpractice  FG vows to punish candidates involved in exams malpractice  FG vows to punish candidates involved in exams malpractice  FG vows to punish candidates involved in exams malpractice.