30th May, 2015
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Saturday said it would continue to maintain best practices in the conduct of its examinations, irrespective of security challenges it has witnessed.
The council’s Head of National Office (HNO), Dr Charles Eguridu, told NAN in Lagos that the conduct of the council’s examinations was improving by the year.
Eguridu spoke against the backdrop of efforts it made in ensuring the successful conduct of its recently-concluded May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
According to him, the examinations were conducted hitch-free, with no major interruptions, unlike in the past.
He said there were no hitches in states with security concerns, adding that this was because the council used indigenes of such areas as personnel during the examinations.
“The examinations went on well; there were no major hitches during the conduct of the examinations.
“Having said this, however, I will quickly like to point out that security wise, the council had a few challenges, which had to do with communal clashes in states like Benue,” Eguridu said.
The WAEC HNO added that a youth corps member who supervised the examination in one of the states was attacked on his way home by candidates of a school.
He said the attack was prompted because the youth corps member prevented the candidates from cheating. “We shall continue to do our best to protect our personnel and materials, to ensure safety. We shall continue to improve on our strategy in the area of security.
“We shall do our best in this aspect, even though as you know, there is no way we can deploy security personnel for every staff of WAEC or every supervisor representing the interests of the council.”
He said this would be an expectation too high to meet.
Eguridu, however, lauded the various security outfits that had supported the council over the years in various parts of the country.
He said their collaboration with the council were part of the reasons for the successes it had recorded so far.