The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) says it has uncovered an elaborate scheme by various institutions to engage in mass cheating in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
It said the scheme included the extortion of between GH¢200.00 and GH$500.00 from candidates for invigilators to assist the students, supervisors to assign teachers to invigilate subjects they teach.
To address such occurrences, WAEC, in a statement issued in Accra on Monday, said it had cautioned stakeholders, including Heads of School, Supervisors and Invigilators to desist from such practice.
Signed and issued by the Head of Public Relations of the WAEC National Office, John Kapi, the statement said those involved would be dealt with according to the rules and regulations of the examination, when caught.
“The council will not hesitate to nullify the entries of such candidates and those who manage to sneak in will have their entire results cancelled if found out,” the statement added.
A total of 460,611 candidates made up of 212,954 males and 247,657 females from 1,003 schools are taking part in the examination which started with the administration of the Visual Art Project work from August 5 to 16, 2024.
They will write the first core paper- oral English today while the examination would end on Friday, September 20, 2024.
It said the total number of candidates this year was 2.66 per cent higher than the 448, 6674 figure recorded in the previous year.
It further said examination centres that did not comply with the rules that governed the examination would be relocated to WAEC-designated centres.
The examining body further advised candidates to adhere to the rules and regulations of the examination and be wary of the activities of rogue website operators.
It assured that necessary test security measures had been put in place by WAEC to ensure successful examinations.
“The council wishes all candidates success in their papers and reminds them that they can pass their examination without cheating,” the statement added