WAEC Exam Fraud: Discourage ‘Camping, Flexibility Fees’

Recently, the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Education, and West African Examination Council or WAEC-Liberia announced the cancellation of the exams for Twelve Graders across the country.

The government and WAEC-Liberia attributed the decision to burglary at a facility on the Konola Academy in Margibi County at which time test materials were taken away on the eve of administering the tests.

The exams, according to the government and WAEC, are now rescheduled for June 27 to July 1, 2017 across Liberia.

Of course, the decision did not go down well with many of the senior high school students who should have written the exams. In separate statements issued to the media in Monrovia, some of the students attributed the burglary to the inability of the WAEC authorities to ensure the security of the exams at Konola Academy.

Even though we share the concern of the students, es[specially so when some were adequately prepared for the tests in anticipation of college education in the shortest period of time, blaming WAEC for the theft may just be something with which one would beg to disagree.

While some students may have spoken out of the frustration characterizing the incident and the effect all 12th Graders across Liberia, the absence of security at the facility at the Konola Academy should not have provided any opportunity for anyone or student to burst into scud facility. This is why it is always important for students to discourage each against academic frauds and other mal-practices in school.

One would have thought that some of the 12 Graders apportioning blames on WAEC would have been fair enough to their consciences to blame themselves and school authorities for encouraging FLEXIBILITY FEES and CAMPING for the exams – two major factors always responsible for exam theft in Liberia, other than the inability of WAEC to provide security for materials.

It is unfair to point accusing fingers at WAEC in the wake of the Konola situation when the very 12th Graders are always solely responsible for exam theft due to their own academic inadequacies – camping and flexibility fees being two factors responsible for exam fraud.

Other than choosing the blame-game, candidates for WAEC Exams must see the recent decision announced by the Liberian Government and WAEC-Liberia as the beginning of discouraging camping and paying Flexibility fees to school authorities.

The students should have no problems with the government and WAEC for the cancellation, but themselves – it may have just been a few of them who burst into the facility at Konola Academy to steal the exams in fulfillment of the flexibility fees.

In view of the foregoing, it is now incumbent on the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Education, to institute the necessary measures against payment and acceptance of flexibility fees by both exam candidates and school authorities across the entire country.

The issues of camping and flexibility fees must be completely discourage – and it must start with school authorities now or else, the country will continue to be disgraced.