WAEC may sanction private schools for non-adherence to registration deadline

• 1,621,853 candidates to sit for examination

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has accused private schools of non-adherence to registration deadline, thus, delaying commencement of the test.

Head of National Office, Patrick Areghan, at a pre-examination press briefing in Lagos, also announced that 2023 school-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would hold for seven weeks, beginning from May 8 to June 23.

While lamenting the attitude of some private schools towards registration, Areghan said: “There was a very serious challenge of non-adherence to the registration deadline, to the extent that what we started on October 10, 2022 with a set deadline of January 27, 2023, and eventually extended to March 31, 2023, could not even end due to the shenanigans of some private schools, which were in the habit of shopping for external candidates to make up numbers, contrary to the policy, which does not allow the enrolment of private candidates for school candidates examination.  Entries eventually closed on April 15, 2023, while the examination starts on Monday, May 8.”

He added: “It will surprise you to know that some schools are still bombarding us with requests for entries, even after the pre-examination, examination and post– examination materials have been produced and are being distributed to the various states.”

The WAEC chief also deplored the uncooperative attitude of some schools, which failed to upload the Continuous Assessment (CASS) scores of their students, which he described as a major component in the computation of grades for candidates in the WASSCE examination.

Areghan noted that technology deployment had made it possible for the Council to provide platforms for schools to upload, manage and access students’ data seamlessly and make them available to schools on request.

He said: “Currently, the Council allows upload of CASS data in SS1, SS2 and SS3, at different periods. For each period of upload, the Council opens its portal free of charge for all schools and also varies the period of upload to enable all schools upload.”

Areghan warned that erring schools risk penalties.

He said a total of 1,621,853 candidates across 20,851 government and private schools registered for the examination.

The Council has also established a self-service system for candidates, through the Chatbot Platform, to enable them access their entries, which they hitherto did not have access to, contrary to instructions.

In the area of security, Areghan said the Council is discussing with the Inspector General of Police and other security agencies, as well as state governments to ensure that the examination is conducted under a secure and safe environment.

He added that if the need arises, schools in insecurity-prone areas would be relocated to safe havens to enable candidates write the examination.