In the 2023 May/June Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, 56 rogue side operators and about 15 others were apprehended for their involvement in examination malpractice. According to Patrick Areghan, Head of National Office, Nigeria (HNO), of the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), they included students, school owners, and teachers.
According to Areghan, the arrests were made in Maiduguri, Ibadan, Abeokuta, and Umuahia. He made this statement Thursday while inspecting schools in Abuja. He added that the suspects would be handed to the police and paraded on national television.
He stated that although 1,621,895 individuals had registered for the exam, not all of them might have shown up.
According to the WAEC boss, the supervisors are the leading cause of the council’s problems because they were heavily involved in exam fraud and made significant sums of money from students and parents.
While adding that the Ministry of Education had provided the supervisors as trusted help, he claimed that with just 2000 staff members at WAEC, they could not mark all of the exams, necessitating the involvement of supervisors.
He claimed that the inspection was crucial because kids took a critical exam for mathematics on Thursday.
He said, “We are not interested in failing students but interested in seeing them pass but the only thing is we cannot help them to pass, we only encourage them by telling them what to and not to do. We are talking to them to make sure they don’t involve in examination malpractice. “We have arrested students. In Ibadan, we arrested a supervisor, candidates and other groups. In Maiduguri, supervisors and candidates were arrested, while in Abeokuta a school proprietor who started it (examination malpractice) from the beginning of the examination was arrested along with others. In Osogbo, a candidate and supervisor and so many others in Umuahia too who are involved in the illegal act were arrested. “We have gone further by identifying and arresting the rogue operators involved in malpractice, unlike last year.”
Meanwhile, he cautioned the participants against using expo during exams, claiming they were bogus.
“Avoid copying what your partner is writing because nothing will prevent you from doing so. We want you to pass, but if you rely on cheating, that indicates you failed,” he stated.
The head of WAEC urged parents and applicants to stop hunting for an expo.
Additionally, he stated that no WAEC officials could be involved in the process, and anyone found to be so would unquestionably be expelled from the system.
The Director of Senior Secondary Education, Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, expressed her sadness over the principals’ complicity in examination fraud, which she called the root of all Nigerian educational issues.
She acknowledged her satisfaction with WAEC’s use of various technologies to address the issue.
Musa Zuru, the principal of Government Secondary School Kubwa, also praised the progress made by WAEC and invited additional schools to participate, noting that schools in the FCT have a zero-tolerance policy for test fraud.
