The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is intensifying efforts to combat the registration of unqualified candidates for its school exams, particularly for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Some parents collaborate with public schools to transfer their children from private schools and register them to take the exams there. In other cases, parents connive with heads of schools to register their Junior High School (JHS) one or two students along with the final year students.
WAEC considers both situations as offenses, and if caught, the unqualified candidates may have their results nullified. For public schools involved, the matter is referred to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for disciplinary action, and private schools may be de-recognized as exam centers.
To address these challenges, WAEC has implemented far-reaching decisions. They plan to collect data a year prior to the exams and assign unique numbers to candidates. Only with these unique numbers can candidates be registered for the exams.
Regarding examination malpractice, WAEC will reintroduce the serialisation of question papers, which was introduced last year. Serialisation helps reduce the activities of rogue websites that provide supposed answers to objective questions. Mrs. Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, the Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, advised candidates to stay away from such dubious websites and WhatsApp platforms as they could jeopardize their future.
The measures taken by WAEC aim to ensure fairness, integrity, and credibility in the examination process and maintain the value of the certificates obtained by qualified candidates.
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