The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has rejected reports of exams leakage in the ongoing 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
According to the Council, “there has been no leakage of examination papers for the WASCCE for School Candidates, 2019.”
WAEC indicated in a statement that, in its monitoring of the examination, it has received information regarding examination malpractices in examination halls and planned cheating patterns at some of the centres as a result of poor supervision and invigilation.
Modus operandi
In some cases, pre-arranged cheating has been reported by insiders with school authorities creating hideouts where teachers knowledgeable in the subject area wait for the question paper packets to be opened.
Snapshot of these questions are taken, solved and answers sent to candidates in the question papers from the centres after the question paper packets are opened.
They then solve the question and post the answers on their websites and the WhatsApp groups of candidates who have paid for such services.
Stop-gap measures
WAEC said that it has put in the following measures to address these challenges bedevilling the conduct of the exam:
- Increased inspection and monitoring of the examination at the various centers.
- Withdrawn an/or annuled the appointment of some supervisors and invigilators pending further sanctions;
- Made a formal complaint to the Cyber Crime Unit of the CID on the operations of the rogue websites;
- A number of candidates suspected to have been involved in examination malpractice are being investigated.
Meanwhile, the Council has hinted of scrutinizing all scripts of schools where cheating has been reported.
2019 WASSCE
The 2019 edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) began in April.
346,098 candidates from 987 schools are writing the examination at 707 centres throughout the country.
The candidature which is made up of 170,867 males and 175,231 females is a 9.2 percent increase over the 2018 figure of 316,980.
The exam body – WAEC for the first time, captured the fingerprints of candidates who are writing the papers as part of measures to curb impersonation.
It also introduced the application of modern techniques such as computer-based testing, e-marking software among others to curb examination malpractice and the use of CCTV cameras in examination centres.
Source:starrfm.com.gh
