WAEC Clarifies On “Special Centres” For Its Examination

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has denied media reports that there are “miracle’’ or “special’’ centres used anywhere for the council’s examination.

The Registrar, Dr Iyi Uwadiae made the assertion at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Lagos state.

According to the Registrar, rather than say there are miracle or special centres, it is convenient to say that there are examination malpractice prone centres.

Uwadiae further explained that such centre where students indulge in collation, exchange ideas and help each other was what led to candidates in a particular centre performing exceptionally than expected.

The registrar said that such a development, when they go unreported and students perform high was what the public term as being a miracle centre.

He said: “Agreed, we will not dispute the fact that some locations are prone to examination malpractices.

“Take the riverine areas for instance; we all know that it is difficult to access such places.

“An examiner or supervisor manages to get there with question papers with need to be there with the inspectors from the Ministry of Education, from WAEC and some other stakeholders.

“What happens in a situation where there is only one boat or canoe that plies the area and must have gone with only the supervisor early in the morning to return at about 12 mid-day?

“Certainly by that time the examination would have been over, meaning that the examination was conducted with only the supervisor and the local invigilators from that area.

“In such cases, there are chances that malpractice must thrive in such centres.’’

Uwadiae said that in the course of the examination, the life of the supervisor could be under threat as he alone would not be able to challenge the action of the candidates.

“Because of this, we normally tell the supervisors that when they are faced with such difficult situation, they should please cooperate.

“They are told not to write anything they experienced right there at the centre, whatever they notice, they should try and memorise.

“When these supervisors are out of that place, hale and hearty, then they can now file their situation report and that is why often times we have many centres that are de-recognised,’’ he said.

He added that it was such developments that normally led to the cancellation of entire results of some centres.

The registrar said the council recognised the fact that there were examination malpractice-prone centres which the public might have termed as special centres but that in the actual sense they are not.