WAEC Candidates That Returned Certificates To Lose Their Degrees
Twenty-five former West African Examinations Council (WAEC) candidates who had returned the certificates got through examination malpractice to WAEC, may also forfeit the degree certificates acquired through the WASCE results, said WAEC.
Our investigations revealed that as soon as WAEC withdrew and cancelled those certificates, the National Universities Commission, NUC, National Board for Technical Education, NBTE and National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCE, were notified for appropriate action.
Speaking, yesterday, through a telephone conversation, a senior staff of WAEC, who does not want his name in print because he was not authorized to speak on the issue, said: “Besides, the 25 WAEC candidates, who returned their certificates due to their Christian faith, there were over 100 persons whose certificates were withdrawn.”
Implication: According to him, the implication of the decision by the former WAEC candidates who had personally reported their involvement in examination malpractice is to forfeit any certificate or job got through the WASSCE results. He, however noted that the discretion to withdraw their degree, polytechnics or NCE certificates is left for their institutions of higher learning to decide. ‘’Our stand has been made known to them such that they cannot come to WAEC office to verify their results for those years,’’ he explained.
His words: ‘’The onus is on universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, to withdraw their certificates if they ever gained admissions to such institutions through the cancelled results. Also, if the cancelled WAEC certificates were part of their official credentials at the point of job employment, their employers, if they so wish can take their decisions.
“WAEC has no power to prosecute them for personally reporting their involvement in examination malpractice, except those who impersonated to collect other persons’ certificates. We can personally hand over such to the Police for prosecution. All we could do in the case of those who reported themselves was to withdraw their certificates and notifies relevant education institutions.
“We have informed the National Universities Commission, NUC, National Board for Technical Education, NBTE and National Commission for Colleges of Education, NCE were notified for appropriate action.’’
Reacting to this, a lecturer in Department of Science and Education, Faculty of Education, Lagos State University, Dr Shina Akintolure, urged the affected candidates to retake the WAEC examinations, adding that it would reflect their true performance without irregularities.
He said: “Good idea, it is a personal choice and they are doing it for restitution. They can however take it a step further by taking another set of WAEC exams that would reflect their true performance without irregularities.” On his part, a retired Director of Education in Lagos, Mr. Agbarakwe Godwin posited that the results of the affected examination centres should be canceled because candidates from those cannot claim innocent.
He said: “If WAEC wants to be honest with itself, they should look at the centre where those people did their examination and cancel the certificates of that year. All of them in the those centres are involved in cheating, cheating is never isolated.
According to him, most private schools are involved in cheating because they want to have high overall percentage, so that students will continue to patronage them to remain in business. He noted that those returning their certificates are not realistic, adding that they were aware of themselves when they did it, they are mere fanatics.
Cancelling of the certificates
Agbarakwe, however charged WAEC to go back to those centres where these anomalies happened, and scrap them from conducting exams because it simply means they are fraudulent, it is not just about the individuals.” You will recalled that WAEC had last week cancelled and withdrew the certificates of 25 candidates who reported themselves to had cheated during the examination.
Breakdown of the year the examinations were taken revealed that the oldest certificates dates back to June 1980 with certificates dated 1986 for Nov/Dec with certificates nos NGPO497232 and NGO 442267 and three obtained in 1989, all for school examinations with certificates nos NGPO 1004584, NGPO 823128 and June West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and eight sat for the Nov/Dec WASSCE.
