Education boss warns 12th and 9th graders

The Minister of Education, George Warner, has expressed serious concern over reports of students being deceived into registering with the West African Examination Council or WAEC to sit for the Private Candidate’s Examination in December, which they are not eligible for.

Minister Warner condemned what he called the deliberate and dishonest adult-led deceptive and fraudulent practices of wrongly advising or suggesting that ineligible students should sit the Private Candidate’s Examination, saying that to do so and to charge fees is dishonorable and falsehearted.

He urged parents, guardians, school authorities and community residents to report anyone found in such practice. The ministry has accordingly barred all 12th and 9th graders from sitting the West African Examination Council Private Candidate’s exams scheduled in December.

Twelfth and ninth graders did not take the WAEC exams for the 2015 academic year due to the abrupt closure of school by the government as a result of inadequate preparation after the Ebola outbreak in the country.

The ministry’s pronouncement followed reports that some school administrators were conniving with WAEC to instead, have their students write the Private Candidate’s Exams on various campuses when in fact, this category of exams are not administered to regular school goers or students just leaving school.

Therefore, students who just completed the 12th and 9th grades, but didn’t write the WAEC exams are being required to join their colleagues from the current 2015/2016 academic year to write the exams next May.
In concert with WAEC, the Ministry of Education has vowed to disqualify all 2015 12th and 9th graders, who are opting to sit the Private Candidate’s exams this year as the tests would be administered only to re-sitters, who failed in 2014 or in previous school years.

By Ethel A. Tweh – Editing by Jonathan Browne