No leakages of WASSCE questions, WAEC insists

 The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria has said none of its question papers for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for school candidates 2020 leaked ahead of time.

Rather, supervisors and candidates take pictures of the questions during the live Examination and share with outsiders to perpetrate examination malpractice.

A statement signed by the Council’s Ag. Head, Public Affairs Demianus Ojijeogu, for the Head of National Office, Mr. Patrick Areghan, warned members of the public to ignore such papers shared on the social media, while urging supervisors to keep to the rule.

It reads: “The attention of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria has been drawn to publications on social and other media alleging the leakage of its question papers in the ongoing WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020. Some have even gone ahead to (mis)quote the Head of National Office of WAEC-Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Areghan, as confirming same. This is far from the truth and we take very strong exception to it.

For the avoidance of doubt, and for the benefit of the general public, there has been no leakage of any paper, whatsoever. The Council’s Monitoring/Investigations have revealed that some unscrupulous and unpatriotic Supervisors/Invigilators, and in some cases, candidates, snap the question papers (while the examination is in progress) and forward to their outside collaborators who in turn, provide solutions to the questions which they send to their subscribers via criminally-inclined websites, SMS and WhatsApp, even as this is against our regulation of: USE OF CELL PHONES IN THE EXAMINATION HALL IS NOT ALLOWED. Some culprits who were caught in the act in Bauchi, Nasarawa and Rivers States have been arrested and will be prosecuted.

“The Council once again wishes to advise candidates, invigilators and supervisors to shun every act of examination malpractice. The Supervisors, who are secondary school teachers, should justify the confidence reposed in them by the various State Ministries of Education that nominated them to supervise the ongoing WASSC examination.

“The Council also wishes to admonish all news media to guide against sensational and irresponsible journalism.

“Once more, the Council would like to re-assure its stakeholders and the general public that contrary to the misleading impression, which the publications sought to portray, the integrity of the ongoing WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020 has not been compromised, as none of the question papers has leaked.”