By Gabriel Dike
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Head of Nigeria National Office (HNO), Mr. Patrick Areghan, his management team and staff can now go to bed with their two eyes closed.
Reason is that Areghan, his management team and WAEC staffers have successfully conducted the May/June 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the results released.
Areghan had disclosed that 1,601,047 candidates sat for the school examination. He said the examination was also administered to candidates in some schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary school is used.
The HNO explained that, of the 1,601,047 candidates that sat for the examination, 796,217 were male, while 804,830 were female, representing 49.73% and 50.27%, respectively.
Before the release of the results, the HNO and WAEC staff hardly got good sleep. From the registration period to the conduct of the school exam and marking of answer scripts, they were on their toes and working round the clock to ensure the success of the exam.
Confirming the rigorous process of ensuring the smooth conduct of the 2022 WASSCE, Areghan remarked during the release of results that it was not a tea party: “Conducting exam is not a tea party. It goes through several processes and costs to conduct exam. The bulk of the fees paid by candidates goes into buying of examination materials.”
He explained that insecurity in the South East and North East has made it difficult to conduct exam in the two zones because of security challenges.
“In the South East, the sit-at-home affected our exam involving two papers. It was not easy conducting exam in South East and North East. In Kaduna State, it was also not easy to conduct exam in certain areas. The state government made arrangements to move the candidates to a safe place to write the school exam.”
He revealed that the council was faced with the Herculean task of conducting the examination in a harsh environment, given the insecurity in the country, with the numerous cases of banditry, kidnapping and insurgency.
“Cases of disruption were experienced in some parts of the South East. There were also some serious concerns in parts of the North West. We are thankful to God that though the issue of insecurity persisted, the examination was conducted and scripts marked successfully, throughout the country, with the collaboration of the state governments concerned, the military and the Nigeria Police Force,” the WAEC HNO said.
According to him, the council worked out an arrangement with state governments and schools in areas with security challenges and the students were moved to a more secure place.
“In Borno and Yobe states, the military supported the council. In Kaduna State, some candidates were moved to secure schools. Security is not in our hand, it is the responsibility of government to provide security.”
The WAEC boss noted that the non-adherence to registration deadline was perhaps the biggest headache the council encountered on the road to the conduct of the examination, stating, “some schools simply ‘slept off’ and failed to do the needful.”
Areghan said certain school failed to upload their students’ CASS at the stipulated time and many did not meet registration deadlines, to the extent that some schools ended up not presenting candidates for the examination.
He stated that even some who registered their students off-line failed to upload their entries, noting, “this showed unacceptable level of nonchalance. Again, others failed to meet deadlines due to criminal ‘shopping’ for candidates. By the time they realized it, the window had closed.”
The HNO stressed that registration for WAEC examinations is not an open-ended thing, stating it involves pre-examination materials, examination materials and post-examination materials to be produced, using data supplied by candidates in good time before the conduct of any diet.
“Failure to meet these requirements would throw the entire process into jeopardy. We plead for co-operation and understanding in this respect, in order to make future exercises successful and less stressful,” he argued.
He explained that the activities of rogue website operators and the ‘miracle centres’ did not go unnoticed and unpunished as the council identified and apprehended some unpatriotic fellows through the help of security operatives.
Areghan revealed that a few supervisors and invigilators, who were caught aiding and abetting examination malpractice, were also brought to book.
“They are currently chatting with the police all over the country. The council, on its part, through the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), will mete out appropriate sanctions to affected supervisors, through the various state Ministries of Education.”
A total of 79,229 examiners, comprising 77,173 traditional examiners and 2,056 e-examiners, participated in the coordination and marking exercise.