By Ayodele Oni
There is hope for the Senior Secondary School students from the South East who were prevented from writing their final papers recently.
The Independent People’s of Biafra, (IPOB) foot soldiers while enforcing the sit-at- home order in some parts of the region had prevented the final year secondary school students from writing one of the final papers.
The Federal Ministry of Education has, now, assured that candidates who missed the 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in the South East, will be given another opportunity to write the examination.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Sonny Echono gave the assurance in Abuja on Monday, but frowned at the Sept. 13 disruption of examination centres in the South East.
The official, who spoke while monitoring the conduct of the examination in some parts of the Federal Capital, expressed satisfaction with the conduct across the country, which was written by over 1.57 million candidates.
According to Mr Echono, the Ministry would put modalities in place to ensure that the candidates who missed the examination in the South East are given other opportunities to write the examination.
“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 1.57million 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.”
Mr Echono further said that the ministry did not encounter challenges in preparing students for the examinations aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that all COVID-19 safety protocols are being strictly adhered to in centres across the country.
He stated further 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, Mr 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.
He said that the Ministry was collaborating with relevant examination bodies and Non-Government Organisations, (NGOs) to fish out candidates involved in examination malpractices.
“This is because we have a lot of miscreants who are perpetrating and deceiving people. We are going to undertake a general overhaul for all those offering so-called services to candidates.
“We didn’t see much of malpractices in internal examinations like this because these are students who are already in school.”
