Wale Ajao
15 May 2008
Lagos — In a desperate bid to retain the credibility of its examinations, the West Africa Examinations Council has outlined new measures to combat rising cases of leakage of its questions papers.
In the past two weeks, WAEC has cancelled examinations in four papers and the council is ready to do more for other subjects.
Reliable sources in WAEC indicate that management is considering new methods of tracking down all sorts of persons involved in the processes of conducting the examinations if they are found guilty of colluding with examination fraudsters.
But things are not going to be easy as the council begins to involve security agencies in efforts to swoop on some suspected tutorial centres.
It is at these tutorial centres in most major cities across the country that buying and selling of question papers take place.
But what is making the job more difficult is that the council has less than three thousand staff and it is saddled with the responsibility of conducting examination in over two thousand centres around the nation.
Coupled with inadequate staff strength is the fact that all those who are assisting WAEC at various stages of the examination are not staff of the council, WAEC can only rely on their sense of patriotism.
According to Mr Biodun Aduloju of the Public Affairs Unit of WAEC, we have involved various levels of personnel.
We were at a time using even security agencies in invigilation but we found out that money is really a sort of temptation for even the security personnel because we had cases where some of them collected money to collude with the cheats.
We had cases where even some teachers and even parents have been involved in buying question papers.
The whole thing takes place outside WAEC. After we have sent the materials to places where they will be used and in that process of transit from our office to the centres lots of unwholesome practices are going on. We have alerted relevant authorities.
We do not have the power to close down tutorial centres.
But we have asked law enforcement agents especially detectives to assist in probing deep into the activities of the tutorial centres.
Mr Aduloju said, "WAEC will not hesitate to cancell any paper that we know has leaked as we are determined to sustain the integrity of WAEC as the oldest and most successful public examination body in West Africa."
The enormity of the task is in the fact that society has become less morally conscious. According to Engineer Fatai Tiamiyu. Chief Executive Officer of FATEC Engineering, "the role of parents who encourage their wards to buy expo at tutorial centres is quite shameful.
Nowadays these children do not want to read some of them believe that their parents will buy expo for them. We need to address the issue of low moral level even among parents."
He suggested that new and more strict laws should be put in place. There should also be no sacred cow, adding that anyone caught in cheating in any public examination should be punished severely.
Some of the new measures the council is adopting is to have supervisors who move around from centre to centre. However, a new method through which examination fraudsters have their way is direct attack on WAEC buses conveying examination materials from one place to another.
Authoritative sources inside WAEC confirm that management will henceforth ensure that only highly placed and trusted officials have an idea of the way exam materials will be moved.
But Vanguard sources admit that there is no way junior staff like drivers, typists, messengers and clerks can be completely kept out of the whole process.
Therefore Vanguard sources believe that WAEC would have to have training programmes for the junior cadre so that they can appreciate the importance of the credibility of public examinations in the economic and social development of the country.
This year WAEC is examinining senior secondary school students in not less than eighteen subjects out of which it has had to cancel about four papers. If the council successfully conducts the examination in the remaining subjects without leakage it can begin to plan more effectively to tackle internal and external saboteurs.
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