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Nigeria: WAEC Papers Leak Again
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Vanguard (Lagos)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Emmanuel Edukugho
In what has become a yearly occurrence, examination papers of the ongoing May/June Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination being conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) have flooded Lagos and other major towns and cities in the country, sold openly for varying amounts
The leak reached a frightening proportion when WAEC last Friday announced it has cancelled English Language Paper (Essay) after the examination body found that the question paper had leaked.
Vanguard Education Weekly investigation showed that almost all the question papers on the various subjects have leaked and selling between N200 and N2,000 depending on the place where they are purchased.
Tutorial centres are the places where these question papers are sold by unscrupulous operators of these centres.
"Examination malpractice has become a culture as parents rushed to register their children and wards in these centres at exorbitant fees because they are given the examination papers and the answers before the examination day," said our source.
It was also gathered that part of the package in the sale of the question papers include the answers which had been prepared by WAEC itself for the script markers.
The Chemistry paper scheduled for Monday 5th May had already been on sale to candidates in several tutorial centres across the country, including Lagos.
Question papers on various subjects reach many of these tutorial centres one or two days before the sitting day.
However, as usual, WAEC authorities are quick to deny leakages of question papers, giving excuses for proven cases of leakages.
It happened so when the head of the national office of WAEC in Nigeria, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, at a reported press briefing last Friday, denied leak of English.
Instead, he blamed a gang of armed robbers that recently attacked a staff of WAEC conveying "examination security materials that were relevant to the ongoing WASSCE and the council was in serious doubt about the integrity of the English Language paper."
According to him, the integrity of other subjects was unquestionable.
In spite of the campaign against examination malpractice mounted by WAEC on both print and electronic media, the menance has persisted and even waxing strong and stronger with subsequent conduct of these examinations.
The culture of corruption in the country has extended profoundly to the education sector. WAEC seems to have failed to look out for its officials that breached and compromised the security of the council's examination papers over the years.
Tutorial Centres have become safe sanctuaries for examination cheats at Senior Secondary School level.
A tutor in a Government College, Lagos, told Vanguard Education Weekly:
"These tutorial centres guarantee students 100% success hence parents send their children to these places because their operators know how to get 'live' question papers. They have syndicates who penetrate the WAEC security system and the printers of the exam papers."
He claims that WAEC can not effectively plug some of its security loopholes.
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"We will continue to have these scandals each year until WAEC sits up to put its house in order. The Federal Government can intervene by imposing severe sanctions on the Nigerian office because leak of question papers are not rampant in Ghana, Sierra-Leone, The Gambia where WAEC also, conduct secondary school examinations," the tutor noted.
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