THE West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on Friday launched its 60 anniversary, with a call by the acting Minister of Education, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, on the council to reduce examination malpractice to the barest minimum.He said technological means undertaken by WAEC as a way of curtailing malpractice ought to be properly utilised for the realisation of the set goals.
The WAEC was established in 1952 as a sub-regional body to conduct examinations in Anglophone West Africa. Its member countries are Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
The anniversary is on the theme: “60 Years of commitment to excellence in educational assesment”.
Mr Mensah said WAEC’s progress and survival as the sole sub-regional examination body made it
imperative for it to cautiously protect its integrity.
He charged the council not to rest on its laurels until virtually all its stakeholders had been properly sensitised and examination malpractice reduced drastically.
The Registrar of WAEC, Alhajia Mulikat Bello, said the council had remained the bridge among the educational sectors of member countries.
According to her, WAEC had relied on the application of technology to re-engineer and re-position itself in line with its vision of being a world-class examining body.
While commending the governments of the five member countries for their continuous support, goodwill, co-operation and the discharge of financial and diplomatic obligations extended to WAEC, Ms Bello was confident that the elimination of examination malpractice would be factored into the educational policies of member countries.
Earlier in her welcoming address, the Head of the National Office, Ms Patience Gladys Ayensu, had said candidates for WAEC’s examinations had grown from some 32,000 for all member countries in 1954 to about 684,476 for Ghana alone in 2011.
“Although the council has had its fair share of challenges, experiences over the years have made us resolute in our quest to reduce incidents of malpractice,” she said.
She announced that the council was determined to deploy more robust information and communications technology (ICT) into its operations as it made strides towards winning the war against examination malpractice.
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