The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday informed the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Examination Bodies that compromises, leakage of its English Language paper, and various other challenges led to the late conduct of the examinations.
The committee stated that the unusual situation led to some candidates taking the examination late into the night in certain states.
WAEC’s Head of the National Office, Dr. Amos Josiah Dangut, said this at a meeting with the committee yesterday in Abuja.
Dangut said the examination body discovered the compromises and leakages three days before the commencement of the examination and tried to put things in order but faced daunting challenges.
WAEC officials failed to appear before the committee on Friday to explain the circumstances that led to the challenges candidates encountered during the examination.
The Head of the National Office told the committee that the compromises led to the challenges because a lot of things “went wrong”.
He stressed that the organisation also encountered some logistics challenges while conveying replacements for the leaked papers.
According to him, vehicles conveying the papers to places like Taraba State broke down while some were not allowed to pass through some communities.
Dangut apologised for his non-appearance before the committee, saying his absence was necessitated by the circumstances that needed his attention at the time.
A committee member, Dagomie Abiante (PDP, Rivers), queried the sincerity of the examination body for not taking appropriate measures when it discovered the leak.
The lawmaker expressed dismay that the students were kept through the night to take the exams.
Abiante said WAEC and the country failed to take measures against such an occurrence, as done by other member-states of the council.
Committee Chairman Oboku Oforji (PDP, Bayelsa) recalled that the committee had, during its sitting on May 30, demanded an explanation for the poor handling of the examination, which caused a huge public outcry and condemnation across the country.
He said: “This committee wants to know; parents and Nigerians want to know. We owe them a duty of care. To whom much is given, much is expected. Money was appropriated by Parliament for the conduct of these examinations.
“We are not trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer as a committee. But as I said in the last meeting, we need to know the immediate and remote causes of the woeful conduct of the examinations. In doing this, we may forestall a future occurrence.”
