WAEC exams questions go online

The head of the West African Examinations Council Liberia Office has disclosed plan here to upload examination questions online to enable secondary school pupils adequately prepare as the country transitions from the Liberia Senior High School Certificate Examinations to the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations or W.A.S.S.C.E., beginning 2018.

W.A.S.S.C.E. comprised purely essay examination questions with no objective questions on the regional secondary schools’ test papers. The man leading this transition is Dale G. Gbote, who was recently appointed Head of WAEC Liberia Office, replacing John Gayflor. He says the office in Liberia plans to put about 1,000 examination questions online, covering all subjects for secondary school students to access and study, among which 60 questions would be drawn for each subject to be administered to students during the examinations.

Until his ascendency to the WAEC Liberia highest office, Mr. Gbotoe had served as head for the Testing Division at the institution. The WAEC Liberia boss says one of his key priorities is to decentralize the office by establishing regional offices in Central Liberia, Nimba and the southeast of the country as well as adapt an automation marking process for examinations papers to avoid manual marking of papers following the examinations.

he Liberia office has digitized registration processes for both private and school candidates, including examination results, making it easier for school administrators to upload candidates’ basic information online and for candidates to go online to check results of examinations administered.

Mr. Gbote discloses that WAEC registered a total of 554 senior high schools across the country for the 2017 secondary schools examinations from 513 in 2016, recording an increase of 41 schools, while during the same period, a total of 1,266 junior high schools registered throughout Liberia, upping by 68 junior high schools from 1,198 in 2016.

A non-profit making organization, the West African Examinations Council based in Accra, Ghana, was established in 1952 after the Governments of Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia approved the West African Examination Council Ordinances in 1951. Liberia became the fifth member of the Council in 1974.

By Jonathan Browne