The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has announced that candidates who sat for its Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations in 2019 and 2020 whose results were wrongly withheld over malpractice will be released without further delay.
In a press release issued on Monday via its official twitter handle, WAEC said after a three-day investigation its highest decision-making organ (Nigeria Examinations Committee) confirmed that some of the candidates who sat for the 2019 and 2020 SSCE Examinations were wrongly accused of malpractice.
“During the 70th Meeting, the Committee received reports on Irregularities, Special and Clemency Cases arising from the conduct of WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2019-Second Series and WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2020-First Series. The Committee also considered a report on the conduct of WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020, as well as Irregularity Cases arising from the conduct of the examination.
“The decisions of the Committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and schools duly informed by the Council. However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the Committee will be released,” it stated.
However, it may not be rosy for those found guilty of engaging in the said malpractice because the Committee stressed it will sanction them in line with its regulations.
It added that some candidates and schools will be barred from sitting and hosting future examinations.
“In the course of considering the various reported cases of malpractice, the Committee, after diligent deliberations, approved appropriate sanctions in all established cases of malpractice, as prescribed by the Rules and Regulations governing the conduct of the Council’s examinations.
“It approved that the entire results of candidates involved in proven cases, which attracted Cancellation of Entire Results (CER), be cancelled, while subject results of those involved in proven cases, which attracted Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR), be similarly cancelled.
“In addition, some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the Council’s examinations for a certain number of years, some schools will be derecognized for a specified number of years or have their recognition completely withdrawn, some Supervisors that were found wanting in the discharge of their examination duties will be formally reported to their employers and blacklisted while some Invigilators will also be reported to the appropriate authorities for disciplinary action,” it stated.
The examination is one of the major steps for entry into tertiary institutions.
