Public and private Secondary schools in Imo state have raised alarm over the withholding of the 2022 WASSCE results by the West African Examination Council. News Echo gathered that the action by the examination board is stemmed on the levy that was placed by the council on the schools who allegedly involved in exam malpractice.
News Echo gathered that 500,000 naira and other fees were levied on schools as sanction for cheating in the past last examination. Hence the affected schools are of the opinion that the body should not demand such amount of money from the schools but should follow the guidelines of punishing students who indulge in such practice rather than punishing the entire schools for such actions.
The schools as gathered have refused to make such payment and call on the government and the examination body to resolve the issue amicably.
Some of the school principals who spoke to News Echo condemned the act as they noted that WAEC had already cancelled the papers where cheating was suspected, hence there isn’t any need to pay the levies again which amounts to double punishment.
Some of the principals stated that the schools cannot afford the payment of such amount of money and called on WAEC to retrace it’s steps.
They disclosed that hence WAEC had its officials that supervised the exam and no report of malpractice was made but a later discovery was made during the marking of the papers where it was discovered that some of the students copied from each other hence the tag of Malpractice.
The principals who said they do not support exam malpractice insisted that punishment for such act should be meted on the identified students and not on the entire schools.
It would be recalled that over 260 schools in the state are affected which made the Imo state House of Assembly to summon the board to explain their actions.
Imo state House of Assembly members decried the action stating that this should not come up at the time the state government is trying to revive the academic standards of school in the state.
