The WAEC Notoriety: What is it we so Yearn for in Students’ Resumption? -By Hussein Adegoke

A story was relayed of a WAEC external supervisor who got to his place of assignment and had refused to be ‘bought’. The principal of the school in question went as thus: “Excuse me, Madam, you see, one of our students had lost his mother recently. The tragic news was least expected at the time it broke. The boy could not believe his ears. And even till now, as I can assure you, he is yet to fully recover from the terrible shock.

“Essentially, Ma, we thought he would not be able to face the examination. So, here is another candidate we hope to ‘field’ on his behalf for the imminent paper” the Principal lamented. Being aware of the rules, the codes of conduct and the statutes of the WAEC examination board, the Supervisor consented not to all the plea. “Mr Principal, sir, impersonation is against the ethics of this examination and you know I can’t compromise,” the Supervisor frankly submitted. There and then, Mr Principal debated no more. “Okay, if that is the way you want it, so be it!” he stated.

A firsthand account that this incident was, let into my auditory senses weeks ago, would obviously repeal it of any probable mendacity (believe me!). And the most shocking thing ever to the one who recounted it, one who was the External Supervisor in this narrative, was her discovery as she paraded the aisles of the examination hall and caught an identity. As she narrated, there was this boy, a student, whose face-matching test was a mismatch. “When I would probe what was amiss, I discovered that the same student who I had earlier forbid from participating in the examination was the same one on seat, damning all consequences and enjoying the moments with glee” She declared.

As it has become apparent, there then seemed to be charges of too-numerous counts. For one thing, the doubts in the fact that there was never any student who lost his parent in the first place had, most regrettably, been asserted true.

In Nigeria, examination malpractices have come to a point where its forbiddance would only corroborate its acceptance. In the light of recounting the demeaning gists above, I have learnt of a situation where a school principal begged to be given an examination script prior to the time of the commencement of the examination, and just so he could perform his usual “ritual” on it. At this juncture, I should state that anyone who would need me to spell out the “ritual” I just mentioned has obviously never been to “miraculous” WAEC centres where the solutions to “live” examination questions are duplicated and served before candidates who must dub them to bring relief to their supposedly tenseness while on the “hot” seats of the examination hall. This trend goes on to be a mockery of what transpires in a conventional daytime class where students sit comfortably to download notes from the chalkboard. In this gist, the principal or so, the “ritualist” in question had not solicited help with an empty hand. He had firstly rendered an “offering” to the supervisor of which the latter had rejected. But, thankfully, the duo’s conversation later ended in bleakness.

But yet, however, while the supervisor was visiting each candidate present in that Chemistry Paper 1 examination hall, she noticed a particular student who was with an Economics Paper 2 question paper. As she quizzed why this was so, another melodrama premiered. “I never knew about two examinations taken place in this hall or how did you come about an Economics paper in this Chemistry exercise?” the supervisor had queried. “The school principal gave it to me” the student, a suspected impersonator so to say, had responded. Explicitly, the same school principal who had earlier solicited an examination script from the supervisor had been the same person who had unyieldingly smuggled the script out of the hall while he substituted it with an “irrelevant” paper and all was not done without the consent of his cohort; one of his students in the hall! For heaven’s sake, how has this sordidness come by?!

You see, be it in examination or in politics, malpractice has transversed the length and breadth of our beloved nation. It has engulfed it totally to make us all swimmers in its lustful pool. The gists foretold, where invigilators were handed sums to compromise during examinations, are not even entirely horrible should we juxtapose them with bleaker events. That a candidate registering for his O’level examination (WAEC et. al) was asked whether he would be in attendance or not, on the day of the examination, gets me pondering on how some illegalities have, with no scintilla of fright, been granted patents by some unknown authorities. What then is the purpose of conducting assessments if impersonation would be the order of the day? As I was made to understand, the charges for these “services” differ. So, for candidates bargaining for a total impersonation, their fees are on the high side.

The plains of WAEC or so, of all similar examination bodies in Nigeria have, most recently, been for those who jubilate commerce; the set of people who would wait patiently till there heralds WAEC or NECO or NABTEB to “sell” off their insincerities at some forsaken rates. One of them or one as such, is a WAEC Examiner who doubled concurrently as the board’s supervisor. He would, like his unknown cohorts, levy the centres he visited for a categorical compromise! Not to begin another narrative, let me end it there.

We have heard of examinees who have “septic tanks” dug purposely for the purpose of containing not urine or feces, but discarded microchips. Stories about about how solutions to LIVE WASSCE questions are printed from photocopiers and shared across the examinees’ desk have not ceased to grace our hearings. Much emphasis was laid on impersonation because it seems to be the worst. There are more sordid narratives of cheating that go on in both external and internal exam. In all these, there abound the blames of the teachers, the students and the government alike.

I died the day a father thought his child could be in the sciences since he did excellently in his BECE (or the Junior School NECO) exams. A child that couldn’t almost spell his name? I interviewed a boy in SSS1 recently and he could not even spell “Duster”. I was weeping for posterity. The day a friend recounted how he went to supervise these BECE students and queried how a student had picked the wrong option for a cheap question and he said it an invigilator that supplied him with that, I almost could not eat. The student was convinced about the right answer but his seemingly poor teacher would not make him manifest his glory. The worse we do to these lads is what you just saw; the snatching of confidence and the stunting of an evolving mindset.

A couple of times though, I would discuss these horrible gists with friends. When I did, they saw me as someone making much ado about nothing. Really, is this a fuss?! I would blame a system that preaches and teaches dishonesty to a populace swimming already in its source. Since our leaders (who were not as corrupt in the days) already swap ballot boxes for a tainted sum during electioneering, what more horrible brigandage should we expect of the next generation who are from school disposed to corruption? What does the future even hold for our beloved Nairaland?!

This article was first published as “WAEC and its Endless Cacophonies” in GEARSHIFT, a NUESA annual magazine for 2016/2017 academic session at the University of Ilorin. The author was then an Editorial Adviser and a graduate student. Hussein Adegoke owns the social media handle: @writingenaire.