The Head, National Office of the Council, Charles Eguridu, said that “Nigeria has the highest number of examination irregularities among the five member countries of the West African Examinations Council”.
He made the revelation while speaking at a Road Show on Examination Malpractices Sensitization held in Abuja.
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Charles Eguridu also added that WAEC has not introduced stricter measures and the use of advanced technology in its bid to curb malpractice in the country. He also warned candidates and schools that engage in organised examination malpractice of the dire consequences of their actions which includes prosecution.
He said: “We have regulation that governs the conduct of our examination”, and warned that malpractice will no longer be tolerated. Eguridu said that the council has the power to withhold any results and carry out investigation on whoever may be involved in examination malpractice. Also, after the investigations have been carried out, the entire result of the caught candidate will be cancelled and the centre derecognised.
Eguridu also added that WAEC has introduced a technology that verifies candidates that registered for the exam. He explained that at the point of registration, the biometric features of each candidate will be captured saying: “All these will be uploaded into our database and on the day of the exam, these features are uploaded into a handheld devise at the centre and like the card reader does, we verify that it is the candidate that writes the exam”. He said that WAEC remains the only examination body that has introduced the use of the technology in the conduct of examination in the whole of Africa.
MacJohn Nwaobiala, The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, said the increasing rate of examination malpractice in the country is high. He said: “In the recent years, we have seen the multifarious manifestation of exam malpractices, from cheating in examination to contracting mercenaries to write exams, among others”.
Mr. Nwaobiala appealed to WAEC candidates to avoid situations that could implicate them in the examination hall, so that their future would not be jeopardized.
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