The fate of thousands of students due for the May/June 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Ebonyi State is in the balance following the derecognition of 345 schools by the subregional examination body.
Daily Sun gathered that at least 21 of the schools were private, while the rest were public schools.
The WAEC board, late last year, slammed a N500,000 fine on each of the affected schools for alleged examination malpractices and another N250,000 for supervision of external exams, amounting to N750,000.
It was further gathered that the Ebonyi State Government and the 345 secondary schools de-recognized byWAEC in the state have agreed to jointly offset the N95 million fine slammed on the schools in the state by the board.
There were about 466 WAEC-recognised schools in Ebonyi State before the incident last year, but about 10 others have been recognised for this year’s examination.
Head of the national office of the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC), Mr. Patrick Areghan, had, before the commencement of last year’s examination, warned that the penalties for any form of examination malpractice would be meted out to erring candidates, supervisors, schools, as would be approved by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which is the highest decision-making organ of the council that sits on examination matters in Nigeria.
He called on parents and guardians to admonish their wards to study hard and desist from any form of examination malpractice.
“The various ministries of education should call their principals, teachers and other officials serving as inspectors, to order. Every candidate and examination functionary must play by the rules, which are well stipulated in the WAEC syllabus and guidelines for the conduct of examinations issued to schools.
“Erring schools will be de-recognized; erring officials would be adequately punished, while erring candidates would lose their results, no matter whose ox is gored,” the WAEC boss cautioned.
In fact, an education manager in Ebonyi, who did not want to named, confided in our reporter that WAEC had severally urged those taking the exams in the state to desist from malpractices.
Ebonyi State commissioner for information and state orientation, Uchenna Orji, disclosed to our reporter that the state government, in conjunction with the affected schools, would, in addition to paying the fine, take WAEC to court and test the propriety of the sanctions.
He said the decision was reached recently during the State Executive Council meeting, attended by principals of the affected schools, and presided over by Governor David Umahi.
Orji said: “Exco received a report on the WAEC decision to de-recognize 345 secondary schools in Ebonyi State for a period of two years for alleged exam malpractice and their imposing of a fine of N500,000 per school and N250,000 for supervision of external exams per school, being a decision taken during their 74th NEC meeting held on the 10th and 11th of October, 2022. During the report presentation in exco, the principals of the various private and public secondary schools were present and made contributions.
“Exco noted their submissions, findings, and suggestions and resolved that the state government, together with the affected schools and principals, will test the propriety of those WAEC sanctions in the of law and further resolved that, in the interest of the future of our students, the state government would pay the sum of N50 million in favor of WAEC, out of N95 million, on behalf of the affected schools, while the affected schools and principals would pay the sum of N45 million to write off the penalty against the schools. This is without prejudice to the resolution of exco to pass the decision of WAEC, suspected to have been made without a fair hearing, in the fiery furnace of law.”
In a related manner, the member representing Ikwo/Ezza South Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Chinedu Ogah, also called WAEC to reverse the N500,000 sanction placed on some schools in the state.
Ogah, who decried the withholding of the results of candidates in the affected schools, threatened to institute legal action against the examination body.
The lawmaker, in a statement, called on the minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to sanction WAEC for derailing his ministry’s administrative mandate.
He wondered why students of Ebonyi State origin would be made to pass through such difficult situations after registering and taking the WAEC examination with their counterparts from other states of the federation.
He added that, if the development was not given the attention it required, it could lead to youth restiveness and the proliferation of social vices among youths in the state.
“I want to call on the West African Examination Council to immediately release the remaining part of the results belonging to indigenes of Ebonyi State,” Ogah said.
Meanwhile, as WAEC registration reportedly ended last week, there was apprehension across the state. Students from many of the affected schools, it was gathered, paid exorbitant fees to take the WASSCE in majorly private schools. Those who could not afford the money were not able to register for the exams and are billed to miss the May/June WAEC.
The principal of one of the affected public schools in the southern part of the state reportedly approached the old students’ association of the school for support. But they couldn't raise the money required. So, the principal, who wished not to be named, told Daily Sun that the final-year students would have to make do with NECO, while they “try to see how some of them will write NABTEB.”
One of the students, whose school was de-recognized by WAEC, told us that his parents spent a lot of money to register him for the examination in a private school in a neighboring town.
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