The West Examinations Council (WAEC) says late registration of candidates by schools for its West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will no longer be allowed from 2022.
JOIN US FOR MORE ON:
or
or Follow us on WhatsApp Channel
According to NAN, Patrick Areghan, head of national office (HNO) of WAEC, broke the news on Friday in Lagos.
Areghan spoke against the backdrop of late registration by schools in an alleged bid to shop for external candidates.
He warned that there would be no going back on deadlines set by WAEC for the registration of school candidates.
According to him, there is a need for school owners to respect deadlines for upload of their candidates’ details.
”Late registration makes preparations very cumbersome. On the contrary, we do not experience the same during examination for private candidates,” the HNO said.
“This year, we opened our portal for registration of candidates on Feb. 5, to close on May 16; that is a three-month interval. We later extended it to May 31, but due to activities of defaulters, we kept shifting the goalpost until the end of June. This is July and as of the 15th, these stragglers were still calling for more extension.
”These are people who will not do the needful within the given period; this will no longer be tolerated, no matter the explanation advanced.”
Areghan also said there is a government policy that schools shouldn’t enroll external candidates for WASSCE.
“If a student should fail the exam while in school, depending on the policy of the state, if given the opportunity to repeat, he or she could repeat. If not, such a person should go and attempt the exam again as a private candidate,” he added.
”Government has stated it clearly that we should not enroll external candidates to sit for school examination.
According to Areghan, in order to make the system more effective, schools must insist on carrying out continuous assessments progressively for students from SS1 to SS3.”
Areghan explained that there was a collaboration that emphasised capturing and upload of students’ details from SS1, in a bid to avoid registration of external candidates.
He said, however, that there had been sabotage, especially by private-owned schools. According to him, the alleged saboteurs would come up with excuses ranging from mistakes in subject registration to the misspelling of names.
”They do not want to comply. Should they comply with the process and directive, the issue of registering external candidates will never arise,” the official added.
”I recall in 2018, they frustrated our efforts, but it did not work, same in 2019. This year, we have taken the issue to our board and it has given us the necessary backing; those who could not register within the given time frame were shut out and have been all over the place complaining.
“Right now, whatever you submit as your continuous assessment score record, name of candidates and other details, is what we transfer to our registration portal.
“No change is effected but unfortunately, upon doing all these, some schools still go ahead to enroll fictitious names so that when they go shopping for external candidates, they come back to demand a change of information on candidates’ profiles.
”Our message now is that it will no longer be business as usual. We have started to checkmate all these unwholesome activities and we are putting down our feet.
“On our part, we will ensure we carry out adequate sensitisation on the issue through our media partners and even on social media. Once we close registration, that will be it.”