CANDIDATES of the West African Examination Council who are caught cheating in more than one paper will have their entire examination results rendered invalid.
This is according to a communiqué issued at the end of the Council’s 55th Nigeria Examinations Committee meeting, where the council said it had become necessary to review its rules on examination malpractice.
Signed by the Council’s deputy director of public affairs, Mr. Yusuf Ari, and released to be media on Saturday, the Council expressed concerning over increasing cases of examination malpractices by its candidates, as observed in the November 2012 edition of its examination for senior secondary school students in the country.
“In order to check the ugly trend, the committee subsequently decided that the sanction in the council’s rules and regulations should be reviewed,” the communiqué read.
“It is clear that there is an urgent need to review the rule on such cases from cancellation of subject result to cancellation of entire results,” it said.
It noted that collusion and irregular activities, inside and outside the examination hall, were the most prevalent forms of examination malpractice.
It said that monitoring by members of staff of the council and other stakeholders and recent innovations were exposing examination cheats.
“Members believed that if the principal of a school decides that examination malpractice should not be allowed in his or her school, incidences of malpractice will be very minimal,’’ it said.
The Council stated that the National Examinations Committee endorsed posting of irregularities in its certificate examinations for senior secondary school students, special and clemency cases on the council’s website.