West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), has disclosed that 56 rogue side operators and 15 others comprising students, school proprietors, and teachers have been arrested over their involvement in examination Malpractice in the ongoing 2023 May/June Senior Secondary Certificate Examination.
The Head of National Office, Nigeria (HNO), Patrick Areghan stated this while on inspection to schools in Abuja on Thursday said the arrest was made in Maiduguri, Ibadan, Abeokuta, and Umuahia and that suspects will be handed to police and will be paraded at national televisions.
Areghan noted a total of 1,621,895 candidates registered for the examination but there is the possibility of all not sitting for the examination.
The Head of National Office affirmed that the major people giving the council problem are the supervisors, saying, they were deeply involved in examination malpractice and made huge amounts of money from students and parents.
While explaining that the supervisors were being given provided by the Ministry of Education as trusted hands, he said considering WAEC’s staff strength of 2000, they cannot mark all the examinations and thus the involvement of supervisors.
The Waec Boss said the inspection was important because students sat for an important subject, Mathematics, on Thursday.
According to him, “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 involve 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 with others. In Osogbo, a candidate and supervisor and so many others in Umuahia too who are involved in illegal activities were arrested.
“We have gone further by identifying and arresting the rogue operators involved in malpractice, unlike last year.”
Meanwhile, Areghan urged the candidates to desist from the use of expo in examinations, saying they are fake.
“Do not copy what your mate is writing because there is nothing that will make you write the same thing. If you rely on cheating that means you have failed and we want you to pass,” he said.
The head of the inspection begged parents and candidates to desist from looking for an expo.
He also said that it is impossible for any WAEC officials to be involved in the process and that anyone that is found involved will leave the system.
While Reacting, The Director of 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 problems in Nigeria.
Abdulkadir reflected happiness over WAEC’s deployment of many technologies to tackle the situation.
Similarly, 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 and urged other schools to key in.
