Sokoto, Zamfara govt schools not registered for SSCE – WAEC
Public schools in Sokoto and Zamfara states have no registered candidates for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) scheduled to hold from May 16 to June 23.
The Head of the Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr Patrick Areghan, disclosed this yesterday while addressing newsmen on the council’s preparations and readiness for the conduct of the examination in Nigeria.
Though Areghan revealed that private schools in the two states had registered their candidates for the examination, he noted that “The reason why candidates from public schools were not registered remains unknown.”
He explained that even though the National Identification Number (NIN) was made a component of the registration process, no candidate was denied registration as a result of the nonsubmission of NIN.
He called on parents and guardians to admonish their wards to study hard and desist from any form of examination malpractice.
He also warned supervisors to desist from aiding and abetting examination malpractice by assisting candidates, especially by allowing them to enter the examination hall with their cell phones.
But in a quick response yesterday, the Sokoto State government accused the examination body of extortion and deliberate distortion of information.
The state government noted that it had been paying examination fees for final year students in all the public schools across the state, including NECO, WAEC and NABTEB.
The Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Schools, Muhammad Bello Guiwa, in an interview with Daily Trust said the problem started last year when the council developed new software for students’ registration.
He said, “The names of our students were distorted. For instance, somebody whose name is Danladi appeared as Banladi on the new platform and his other details like date of birth and others were not there. When we realised that, we notified them and pleaded with them to correct them so that our children would not have any problem after writing the exams.
“They refused to correct the mistakes despite a series of reminders because we wrote four letters to them. It was after the receipt of the 4th letter that they agreed to effect the correction but on conditions that we will pay N5000 for each correction, meaning if three letters were corrected on one name we will pay N15,000.
“When we added the money we realised that it ran into hundreds of millions. And they asked us to pay an additional N100,000 for each school in which students’ names were corrected and we have over 360 schools with 36,000 final year students.
“We told them we cannot pay the money because the mistake is from them not us. We complained to the Federal Ministry of Education and the representative of the minister in the board of WAEC intervened but to no avail.”
Guiwa added, “This year they came to us for resolution and we agreed that our children will write the exams. We have 37,000 writing final year exams this year. We submitted their names and asked for their individual PIN which is the normal procedure.
“But the council declined our request that we must make a 40% down payment before they can release the PIN and these were the people who came and pleaded for peaceful resolution of the issue. This is why our students didn’t register for their examination.
“So for them to say they were not aware why our students are not writing the exams; they are economical with the truth because they know the reason.