WAEC arrests candidates for perpetrating exam malpractice via WhatsApp

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Monday said candidates and some supervisors of the council have been arrested while engaging in examination malpractices in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)

This was disclosed by the National Officer of the exam body, Mr Olu Adenipekun, while speaking to newsmen in Lagos.

He added that the exam body had decided means to track malpractice in the May/June WASSCE which began on Monday, April 8 nationwide and in all the member countries.

“I just want to report that quite a number of candidates have been arrested, including some supervisors in different parts of the country, during the conduct of this examination.

“For the candidates, I may not be able to give you the number now but that of the supervisors, it is four or five,” the council boss said

Read also: NIWA partners NEXIM to improve water transportation

On candidates who took photos of some of the pages of the question papers to share via Whatsapp platform, Adenipekun said, “This was for their collaborators outside to provide answers to the questions and then return same to them via the same platform.

“We also had supervisors, about four or five of them, who also got involved in this kind of examination malpractice.

“They got to their various schools, opened the bag containing the question papers, and the first thing they did before distributing the papers to candidates was to use their telephones to snap pages of these question papers and equally post to their mercenaries outside.”

“The best way to fight it is also to deploy technology which has been of tremendous success in tracking and monitoring during the conduct of our examination,’’ he added.

Babatunde Alao …

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now