The West Africa Examinations Council has cancelled the results of candidates involved in examination malpractice during its 2015 November/December diet of the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination.
This was contained in a communiqué issued after the 61st meeting of the council’s Nigeria Examinations’ Committee.
The communiqué, signed by the council’s Head, Public Affairs, Damianus Ojijeogu, was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Lagos.
It said the decisions of the committee would be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools would be duly informed by the council.
The communiqué said the meeting of the council’s NEC, the highest decision making body, was held on March 30 and 31 in Lagos.
It said the committee also discussed the reports received on irregularity, special and clemency cases arising from the conduct of the 2015 May/June WASSCE.
The communiqué said there were reported and established cases against some private candidates during the 2015 November/December examination, which led to the sanction.
It noted that in addition to the cancellation, some candidates would be barred from sitting for the council’s examinations for a certain number of years.
The communiqué added that some schools found to have aided malpractice would be derecognised.
It added: “In the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice, the committee, after diligent deliberations, approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice.
“This is as prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the council’s examinations.
“However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the committee will be fully released.”
It noted that the committee also considered special cases, clemency cases, restitution, petitions and previous cases that were referred to it for further investigation from previous examinations.
According to the communiqué, the committee also received a report on the statistics of entries and results for the May/June 2015 WASSCE.
It noted that it also received and considered the general résumé of the chief examiners’ reports on the November/December 2015 WASSCE.
The communique added that during the meeting, the committee equally received and considered reports on the activities of the Aptitude Tests Department for the period between November 2015 and March 2016.
It also considered reports on the activities of the Research Department of the council from October 2015 to March 2016.
The communiqué added that from the reports on the November/December 2015 WASSCE, the committee agreed with the observations by the chief examiners that the standard of the papers compared well with those of the previous years.
According to the communiqué, the chief examiners generally reported that the instructions were clear, questions well structured, straightforward and within the scope of the syllabus.
It noted that members of the committee also agreed that the marking schemes were exhaustive and that marks were well distributed.
It said that the committee noted the various shortcomings on the part of the candidates as reported by the chief examiners.
The communiqué noted that members of the committee decried a situation whereby private schools who do not have regular students register candidates for school examinations.
It noted that NEC also observed the high incidence of examination malpractice in private schools due largely to the registration of non-students as candidates for WASSCE.
The communiqué added that NEC had enjoined the state governments to sanction erring proprietors and schools to serve as a deterrent.
It added that the committee also observed that there was a decline in the reported examination malpractice cases in 2015 when compared to 2013 and 2014.
According to the communiqué, the NEC also commended the council for deploying appropriate technology in the conduct of its WASSCE.
It also lauded state ministries of education for putting in place, measures to fight examination malpractice in public schools and advised that efforts should be made to extend such to private schools.
According to the communique, states with relatively high cases of examination malpractice will be policed and monitored during WASSCE in order to forestall examination fraud.
It added that the council would do this through its state offices in collaboration with the various ministries of education in affected states.
The communiqué added that the committee had observed that “collusion” had the highest percentage of examination malpractice cases recorded in the 2015 WASSCE by private candidates.
It lauded the council for developing software to defeat collusion by candidates in multiple-choice questions in its examinations. NAN reports that the committee meets twice a year to consider matters relating to the conduct of the WASSCE for school candidates and private candidates.
NAN.
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