Preparations on course for WASSCE 2022 - WAEC

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has given the assurance that all preparations towards the 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) are on course, with the pre-printing of candidate’s details on the objective answer cards on-going.

Additionally, WAEC has moved the depots, where examinations question papers will be stored closer to examination centres by increasing the numbers to reduce the time taken in moving the question papers from depots to the centres.

Preparation
The Head of the National Office of WAEC, Wendy Enyonam Addy-Lamptey, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic said “all depots have been inspected and the necessary fortification and refurbishment are being done to ensure that they meet the security requirements.”

She said the council was organising fora to sensitise a cross-section of candidates to the rules and regulations for the conduct of the examination.

“We are making sure that the schools with high numbers of irregularities last year are included,” she said, adding that a webinar would be held on the topic, “Promoting examination ethics in our schools.”

Mrs Addy-Lamptey hinted that “this year, school candidates caught indulging in examination malpractice will be named and shamed during the conduct of the examination.

“The council will also give regular updates on the conduct of the examination to ensure the proper education of our public,” she added.

Rogue websites

She cautioned candidates and the general public on the activities of rogue websites, WhatsApp and telegram groups, alerting the public that the scammers had already started their ploys to attract candidates.

“Some have created sites requesting candidates to download the examination timetable. In doing so, they store the candidates' contact numbers to be able to get to them during the examination.

“It has been noted that a number of these timetables have errors. All schools have been provided with hard copies of the timetable, and candidates are urged to use these or access it from the WAEC website,” the HNO advised the candidates.

Malpractice

Mrs Addy-Lamptey revealed that WAEC had received a number of letters from students, tutors and some concerned citizens in communities informing it of monies being taken from candidates with promises of helping them during the examination.

She promised that the WAEC would be engaging those schools involved in the act, and would monitor them closely during the examination, saying that a list of the schools would also be submitted to the Ghana Education Service (GES).

Mrs Addy-Lamptey gave the assurance that WAEC was working with all the security agencies to enable it to track and arrest dealers and scammers who might be operating.

“We are also appealing to the telcos to readily provide information to the security agencies to facilitate their work,” she pleaded.

Advice to candidates

While wishing the candidates success in the upcoming examinations, she assured them that they could pass their examinations without cheating, adding, “we urge our candidates to prepare well for the examinations, knowing that it is within their scope.

“The key to excellent performance is advance preparation, obeying the rules and regulations of the examination, paying attention to the rubrics in the question papers, reading all your questions before selecting the right ones, and generally not wasting time on one question with the intention of ‘killing the question’ so to speak,” and further advised the candidates.

Mrs Addy-Lamptey called for support from all stakeholders, “heads of school, tutors, invigilators, security agencies, media and all others to play their roles and support us promote examination ethics in our schools. It is a collective responsibility.”