The West Examinations Council (WAEC) says late registration of candidates by schools, for its West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), would no longer be allowed, beginning from 2022.
The Head of National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Mr Patrick Areghan, made this known on Friday in Lagos.
Areghan spoke against the backdrop of late registration of candidates by some schools in an alleged bid to shop for external candidates.
The HNO warned that there would be no going back on deadlines set by the council for registration of school candidates, henceforth.
According to him, there is a need for school owners to respect deadlines for uploading their candidates’ details for the examination.
He said that late registration was a major challenge to the council.
”Late registration makes preparations very cumbersome. On the contrary, we do not experience the same during examinations for private candidates.
”This year, we opened our portal for registration of candidates on Feb. 5, to close on May 16; that is a three-month interval.
”We later extended it to May 31, but due to activities of defaulters, we kept shifting the goalpost until the end of June. This is July and as of the 15th, these stragglers were still calling for more extension.
”These are people who will not do the needful within the given period; this will no longer be tolerated, no matter the explanation advanced,” he warned.
The WAEC boss noted that there was a Federal Government policy on education which stated that no school should enroll external candidates for WASSCE for schools.
”If a student should fail the examination while in school, depending on the policy of the state, if given the opportunity to repeat, he or she could repeat; if not, such a person should go and attempt the examination again as a private candidate.
”Government has stated clearly that we should not enroll external candidates to sit for school examinations.”
According to Areghan, in order to make the system more effective, schools must insist on carrying out continuous assessments progressively for students from SS1 to SS3.
The HNO explained that there was a collaboration that emphasised capturing and uploading students details from SS1, in a bid to avoid registration of external candidates.
According to him, this has been the case in some schools.
He said, however, that there had been sabotage especially by private-owned schools.
