According to statistics from the Upper West Regional WAEC office 8,401 candidates from 28 schools are taking part in the ongoing WASSCE in the region.

According to supervisors of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), the examination started April 3, have written over 10 papers and there has not been any problem with logistics or smuggling of foreign materials.

Again, there has not been any record of examination malpractice, the WAEC Supervisors told Ghana News Agency monitoring team during a visit to the various examination centres on Monday.

At about 0900 hours when the candidates visited the centres, students were seen busily writing Elective Maths whilst the invigilators were strictly invigilating.Mr Issah Ibrahim Shaibu, the Supervisor for Wa Senior High School examination centre said adequate materials question papers and answer booklets were supplied and received on time from WAEC.

The Centre is hosting 790 candidates from three schools comprising of Wa Senior High School (606 candidates), Tupaso Senior High School (122) and Jamiat Girls Senior High School (62).“There are five candidates who are blind, three of whom are girls and their relevant examination materials are also being provided and in sufficient quantities”, he added.

The candidates in WASEC are made of 418 boys and 188 girls, Mr Shaibu said, but he could not immediately give data on gender for the remaining two schools.At Wa Senior High Technical School Centre, the school has 518 candidates and shares the Centre with Northern Star Senior High School who presents 65 candidates, Mr Sesay A. Qadir noted.

He said: “things have changed this time, there are no extra or excess booklets” as experienced in previous years; emphasising that the booklets are big enough and would not require any candidate to ask for more sheets.“Even graph sheets are contained in the booklets in some cases,” he added.

He said invigilators were extra vigilant while supervisors are firmly enforcing the examination rules to ensure fairness for all candidates following series of briefings for exam officers by WAEC prior to the examination.

“Candidates are not allowed to wear closed sandals to the examination hall. They are permitted to wear only sleepers or open sandals. No mobile phones or wrist watches suspected to be phones are allowed inside the hall, and we are enforcing it.”