The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has created a
new diet of its examination to cater for a large number of external candidates
registering for the examination.
The council’s Head, National Office (HNO), Mr Olu
Adenipekun, disclosed this at the unveiling of the first series of the West
African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) diet for private candidates
on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to him, the council has noted that a large number
of external candidates are registering for the WASSCE meant for school
candidates. He said that this led to an astronomical increase in cheats being
caught during the conduct of the examination.
“After thorough deliberations on the issue, the governing
board of the Council approved that its national offices should begin the
conduct of one additional diet every year of the WASSCE for private
candidates,’’ Adenipekun said.
He remarked that the introduction of one more diet of the
examination to the existing two, “is in fulfilment of WAEC’s determination to constantly
meet the demands of stakeholders’’.
The new diet is slated to hold in January/February 2018.
This is in addition to the existing May/June WASSCE for school candidates and
the November/December diet for private candidates.
This brings to three, the number of examinations to be
conducted by the WAEC every year with effect from 2018. On April 13 this year,
the Registrar to Council, Dr Iyi Uwadiae, announced at a news conference in
Lagos that the council had approved the conduct of an additional diet of the
WASSCE for private candidates, beginning from 2018.
“The conduct of this additional diet of the WASSCE for
private candidates became necessary because the WASSCE for school candidates is
written first every year. “And the results are released before the conduct of
the WASSCE for private candidates.
“Therefore, school candidates who wish to retake the
examination usually have the opportunities of doing so during the private
candidates’ examination. “But with growing concerns among stakeholders over what
they perceived as a denial of equal opportunities against private candidates,
there has been a deluge of appeals across the West African Sub-region for
Council to reduce the agony of long waiting experienced by the private
candidates, who desire another shot at WASSCE.’’
According to him, the flagging off of the new diet is
starting with Nigeria. The HNO noted, however, that the remaining member
countries of WAEC had indicated their readiness to follow suit. Adenipekun
explained that the first series of the ‘WASSCE for private candidates in 2018
would be an urban-based examination. According to him, candidates will be
examined in 19 subjects.
“Centres for this examination will be located in cities and
urban areas where we have a large number of the candidates. “We will start with
that for now and then gradually, we continue to spread to every nook and cranny
of the country,’’ he said.
Adenipekun said that the council would continually deploy
technology in its fight against examination malpractices. He added that the
council was determined to win the war against the scourge. He called on all
stakeholders to join hands with the council in the fight against examination
malpractices. According to him, this is necessary toward ensuring that the
integrity of the examination is not compromised.
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