The Head of Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr. Patrick Areghan, has accused some schools of shopping for external candidates for the May/June 2021 school exam.

Areghan, who disclosed this in Lagos while announcing the date for the start of the May/June 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), said the council will not accept the registration of new candidates.

He acknowledged that some schools requested to be allowed to register additional candidates for the school exam scheduled to start on August 16.

Areghan said the concerned schools had earlier submitted names of non real candidates for the May/June 2021 WASSCE and now want to substitute them for the external candidates they had sought.

“In the school exam, we don’t have walk-in candidates. Up till now (last week) schools are begging to register candidates. Most schools went for shopping for external candidates.

“We opened Registration for May/June 2021 WASSCE on February 15 and reopened again closing in July. Why will schools not able to register candidates within five months. The schools are doing so because of Continuous Assessment Score (CAS).

“It is (CAS) a Federal Government policy. We decided to comply to check the registration of external candidates. We caught some schools using Cyber cafe to upload candidates. When it was time, they wanted to re-upload for external candidates they had shopped for,” he said.

On examination malpractice, Areghan warned schools, candidates and syndicates that WAEC will apply the full weight of the law. He said schools and candidates will be sanctioned while the syndicates will be prosecuted.

The WAEC HNO described exam fraud as a national problem which required collective actions to tackle, adding “we have sanctioned schools, supervisors, barred candidates from writing out exam and cancelled results.”

He warned that WAEC will fight exam syndicates and schools that are aiding exam fraud, “we will get them technologically and systematically,” he said.

Areghan admitted that the syndicates have gone digital and the council has also deployed technology to frustrate and detect exam malpractice during and after exams.

According to him, the syndicates are advertising for ‘clients’ online and revealed that security agencies are closely monitoring them and their activities.

“All rogue website operators are hereby seriously warned to desist from their nefarious acts. It is only lazy schools and candidates that resort to exam malpractice. Anyone caught conniving with rogue website operators or patronizing them will be seriously dealt with,” he warned.

The May/June 2021 WASSCE will start on Monday, August 16 in 19, 425 secondary schools while 1, 573, 789 candidates will write exam in 76 subjects, made up of 197 papers. It will end on September 30th.

(The Sun)

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