WAEC Working to Stop Examination Malpractices And Leakages
Addressing the media, the Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe pointed out that, the Council has reviewed the contents of Eduwatch’s Report and has observed that most of the issues raised were matters that had engaged the attention of the Council.
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The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), has assured the general public to continue to adopt innovative measures to improve its processes especially, the fight against examination malpractices, including examination leakage.
“We wish to reiterate that WAEC is committed to the conduct of credible examination in the public interest, despite the numerous challenges that we are confronted with in the conduct of examinations. Our doors remain open and we welcome suggestions aimed at enabling us attain our Vision to be the world-class examination body adding value to the educational goals of its stakeholders,” the Council revealed.
WAEC made this statement at a press briefing in response to Eduwatch 2021 WASSCE Ghana Monitoring Report launched.
Addressing the media, the Head of Public Affairs, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe pointed out that, the Council has reviewed the contents of Eduwatch’s Report and has observed that most of the issues raised were matters that had engaged the attention of the Council during the conduct of the examination and had consequently been addressed during the Council’s 1st and 2nd Updates on the examination.
She explained that the WASSCE (SC) 2021 was conducted from 16th August 2021 to 8th October 2021 adding that, Sixty (60) subjects were made available to the 446,321 candidates who had registered for the examination from 765 schools.
The subjects, Mrs Teye-Cudjoe stated, are assessed in different test formats (Objective, Essay, Oral, Practical and Aural) to measure the candidate’s capabilities and mastery of subject matter content.
“Forty-two (42) of the Papers were composite papers. This means that the question paper booklets contained both Essay (Paper 2) and Objective (Paper 1) questions. After candidates are admitted to the examination hall, they write Paper 2 and thereafter continue with Paper 1. There is no break in between and candidates do not move out of the examination hall. The candidates have access to both papers as soon as the question paper booklets are issued to them. There are however clear instructions to both Supervisors and candidates on the administration of such tests,” she explained.
Setting the records straight on what the Council termed as inaccuracies, Mrs Agnes Teye-Cudjoe said According to Eduwatch Report, “a sample frame of one hundred (100) schools from which Wduwatch received information on alleged examination malpractices during the 2020 WASSCE was drawn, out of which fifty (50) schools which were examination centres were purposively selected based on our ability to undertake a successful entry and monitoring”.
According to the Head of Public Affairs, one of the schools that were reported to have been monitored by Eduwatch (Insaniyaa SHS), does not currently exist saying, the school was closed down in January 2021 and that, No candidate was registered by Insanyiaa SHS, for the WASSCE (SC) 2021, neither was the school used as an examination centre.
Again, Beposoman Muslims SHS in the Report is not on the Council’s list of participating schools for WASSCE (SC) 2021 but rather, the list of schools for the examination includes Ghana Muslim Mission SHS, Beposo (No.40).
“We wish to further state that the Council has taken serious notice of the allegations made in the Report of malpractices in certain schools and will probe the issue further to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the claims made”.
The Council she hinted, has considered for implementation, various interventions, aimed at reducing human involvement in the question paper production value chain. “This would include retooling the Council, serialization, use of parallel tests and making use of variable data printing among others.”
