West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has confirmed the leakage of two papers at the ongoing West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Speaking at a news conference, Head of Test Administration at WAEC, George Ohene Mantey, revealed that aspects of the mathematics and English papers found its way into the public domain prior to the exam.
“The cheating social media groups were in full swing prior to the conduct of the mathematics elective and English language papers on 9th and 13th September, 2021 respectively. The Council’s monitoring revealed the circulation of numerous versions of questions both printed and handwritten on most of the groups referred to earlier. After the administration of the test, careful scrutiny of the several versions received indicates extracts of parts of the questions for Mathematics elective (2) and section A of English language 2 were circulated on social media platforms”.
Mr George Ohene Mantey
Following this, Mr Mantey explained that reports from initial investigations and information received indicate that the “circulation was not extensive”. He further announced the postponement of two papers which were set to be written today, September 15, 2021.
“Additionally, the Council will deploy various internationally accepted assessment procedures and interventions within its domain to guarantee the credibility of results. Consequently, those found culpable will be sanctioned.
“The office has rescheduled the physics 2 and 1 and Business Management 2 and 1 paper originally scheduled for today. A new date for the rescheduled papers will be communicated in due course. However, Auto mechanics 2 and 1 will be administered today…”
Mr George Ohene Mantey
Furthermore, Mr Mantey intimated that eleven schools are under scrutiny. He further singled out some schools which the council suspects had “intent to cheat”.
They include Ejisu Senior High Technical School, Tepa SHS, Modern SHS, Oyoko Methodist SHS among others.
Introduction of test serialisation system
Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, on September 13, 2021, revealed that WAEC will soon introduce a Test Serialisation System. He explained that the system is intended to stamp out the recurrent issues of examination malpractices.
Furthermore, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum noted that the Test Serialization System will generate multiple questions in sets of five to 10. By virtue of this, different schools will receive different questions in a randomised fashion.
“We are talking about serialisation, which means there can be about five to ten versions of the same questions.
“If someone creates a rogue website and tells you these questions are coming, how will you know which question will be coming to your school”.
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum
Africa Education Watch indicted WAEC
The Africa Education Watch, in its 2020 WASSCE report, indicted WAEC claiming the council was behind the leakage recorded in the year.
The report stated that Africa Education Watch intercepted an excel spreadsheet on social media, which contained a total of 1,520 names of WAEC examiners for the WASSCE 2020.
It further suggested that the leaked list had the specific names, schools, subject areas, telephone numbers and email addresses of certified WAEC examiners.
Africa Education Watch further indicated that it intercepted some questions in almost every paper except Integrated Science and Social Studies.
Counteracting the report then, Head of Legal Affairs at WAEC, Rev. Victor Brew, stated that“all options are on the table regarding how far we are going to respond to Africa Education Watch going forward”.
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