Sixteen teachers have been nabbed by the Police and WAEC authorities for supporting candidates to indulge in exam malpractices in the ongoing 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination .
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) introduced new regulations for the examination, including a prohibition on supervisors from sending mobile phones to the examination centres.
The Examinations body further revealed new strategies candidates use in compromising the sanctity of the exams by leaving the contact details of their guardians and relatives in the answer sheets for examiners to reach out for bribes and other inducements.
However, some invigilators have violated these rules while others attempted to answer questions for candidates.
According to WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, this was wrong as it does not help the Council to properly assess the candidate’s potential.
As such, the teachers were arrested to deter others from engaging in similar acts.
Speaking to JoyNews on July 10, he said “We have been able to pick up about 16 teachers from various places across the country. Some of them were picked up by our personnel. A few of them were picked up by the National Intelligence Bureau. We have reported all of them to the Ghana Police Service and they are in police custody.”
Mr Kapi said these individuals will be processed for court. Additionally, these teachers will no longer be asked to supervise any WAEC examination.
The regional head of WAEC in the Ashanti region, Divine Worlanyo Agbonyo, also observed several instances of teachers and parents attempting to feed students with answers, as reported on Luv FM.
He recalled that a teacher charged an amount of GH₵6,000 to aid in providing answers for students.
However, he said they had intel on him and his accomplice, who were subsequently picked up and barred from examination centres.
The latest of worrying incidents of exam malpractices which have engulfed both the WASSCE and BECE have been a source of great worry for WAEC and key stakeholders in the educational sector like Civil Society Organizations, teacher unions and the general public alike.
The 2024 BECE has 500,000 candidates spread across over 2,100 centres in the country sitting for the exams.
