Iyi Uwadiae, Registrar, West African Examinations Council
(WAEC), says there are no “miracle’’ or “special’’ centres used
anywhere for the council’s examination. Uwadiae made the
assertion at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Lagos.
According to him, rather than say there are miracle or special
centres, it is convenient to say that there are examination
malpractice prone centres.
He noted that such centres where students indulge in collation,
exchange ideas and help each other was what led to candidates
in a particular centre performing exceptionally than expected.
The registrar said that such a development, when they go
unreported and students perform high was what the public term
as being a miracle centre.
“Agreed, we will not dispute the fact that some locations are
prone to examination malpractices. “Take the riverine areas for
instance; we all know that it is difficult to access such places.
“An examiner or supervisor manages to get there with question
papers with need to be there with the inspectors from the
Ministry of Education, from WAEC and some other stakeholders.
“What happens in a situation where there is only one boat or
canoe that plies the area and must have gone with only the
supervisor early in the morning to return at about 12 mid-day?
“Certainly by that time the examination would have been over,
meaning that the examination was conducted with only the
supervisor and the local invigilators from that area.
“In such cases, there are chances that malpractice must thrive in
such centres,’’ he said.
Uwadiae said that in the course of the examination, the life of the
supervisor could be under threat as he alone would not be able
to challenge the action of the candidates.
“Because of this, we normally tell the supervisors that when they
are faced with such difficult situation, they should please
cooperate.
“They are told not to write anything they experienced right there
at the centre, whatever they notice, they should try and
memorize.
“When these supervisors are out of that place, hale and hearty,
then they can now file their situation report and that is why often
times we have many centres that are de-recognized,” he said.
He added that it was such developments that normally led to the
cancellation of entire results of some centres.
The registrar said the council recognized the fact that there were
examination malpractice-prone centres which the public might
have termed as special centres but that in the actual sense they
are not.
He added that the council members were not miracle workers to
be everywhere and that was why many other stakeholders were
co-opted in the conduct of the examinations.
Mr. Uwadiae said if a centre was prone to examination
malpractice and no report was made concerning activities in
such centres by the supervisors, there was no way the council
would know and act on it.
He said such also applied to the script markers who would mark
and discover a case of possible collusion among candidates and
would not report.
“We will not know what has transpired and so, when they finish
such marking, the scripts are put together and returned to the
rooms where they are kept.
“We will not know what transpired as they only submit the marks
and the attendance sheets where the marks are recorded before
we now scan them into the computers.
“If we should have any suspicious development about the
performance of any script, we do not hesitate to call for such a
script and get an independent examiner who will go through and
perhaps discover or confirm our fears.
“When this is done, we now can establish a case against the
school and subsequently cancel the entire result,’’ he said.
The registrar added that WAEC did not work based on
assumption, noting that it always ensured that there were
evidence to hold on to before taking action against any candidate
or school as the case may be.
Mr. Uwadiae said where there were no such evidence or exhibits,
the candidates were usually let off the hook as punishing the
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