Exam malpractice: WAEC arrests proprietor, supervisors, others

The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC)  has disclosed that 56 rogue site operators and about 15 others comprising of students, school proprietor and teachers have been apprehended over their involvement in examination Malpractice in the ongoing 2023 May/June Senior Secondary Certificate Examination.

Patrick Areghan, Head of National Office, Nigeria (HNO) at WAEC, stated this while on inspection to schools in Abuja on Thursday.

He said arrests were made in Borno, Oyo, Ogun and Abia.

He added that a total of 1,621,895 candidates registered for the examination but there was the possibility of all not sitting for the examination.

The WAEC boss maintained that the major people giving the council problem were supervisors deeply involved in examination malpractice, disclosing that such persons make huge amount of money from students and parents.

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He said the inspection was important because students sat for an important subject, Mathematics, on Thursday.

He said, “We are not interested in failing students but interested in seeing them pass but the only thing is we cannot help them to pass, we only encourage them by telling them what to and not to do. We are talking to them to make sure they don’t get involved in examination malpractice.

“We have arrested students. In Ibadan, we arrested a supervisor, candidates and other groups. In Maiduguri, supervisors and candidates were arrested, while in Abeokuta a school proprietor who started it (examination malpractice) from the beginning of the examination was arrested along others. In Osogbo, a candidate and supervisor and so many others in Umuahia too.

“We have gone further by identifying and arresting the rogue operators involved in malpractice unlike last year.”

He also noted that it is impossible for any WAEC official to be involved in malpractice, but warned anyone caught would be shown the way out.

The Director Senior Secondary Education, Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, said she was saddened by the involvement of principals in examination malpractice which she described as the bane of education problem in Nigeria.

She expressed happiness over WAEC deployment of many technologies to tackle the situation.

Also, the principal of Government Secondary school Kubwa, Musa Zuru, commended the progress made by WAEC, saying that schools in FCT have zero tolerance for examination malpractice.