Modalities would be put in place to ensure that the candidates who missed the 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in the South East are given other opportunities to write the examination, the Federal Ministry of Education has said.
Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Sonny Echono, disclosed this while monitoring some examination centres in Abuja on Monday.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on September 13 disrupted the final year examination across the South East.
Mr Echono, however, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination across the country which was written by over 1.57 million candidates.
“We are very pleased that all around the country; examinations are going on peacefully as we have a total of over 19,000 exams centres across the country with over 1.57 million registered candidates.
“Besides the disruptions we had on Sept.13 in the South East where some candidates were stopped from doing the exams, it is a peaceful examination.
“We are complying with all the standards and ethics of examinations, we are pursuing very hard more cases, incidence or possibilities of examinations malpractice because we have a zero-tolerance for examinations malpractice.
“We shall punish any person found culpable and ensure that sanity is restored in our system,’’ he said.
Echono further said that the ministry did not encounter challenges in preparing students for the examinations aside from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All COVID-19 safety protocols are being strictly adhered to in centres across the country,” he said.
He said that although some schools were closed in states due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative arrangements were made especially for exit classes to take the examination.
On the possibilities of examination malpractices, Echono said that cases of examination malpractices were usually collated at the end of the examination, pointing out that the culprits would also be brought to book.
