Exams malpractice: WAEC penalizes 13 senior Secondary schools in Gombe

Maryam Abeeb

Thirteen senior secondary schools in Gombe State have been de-recognised in four years, by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) over examination malpractices.

Alhaji Ali Yaya, the Director of Examination, in the Ministry of Education, Gombe State stated this in a meeting with all principals of secondary schools, and the management of the ministry held in Gombe.

According to him, examinations malpractice is currently the major challenge facing most of the senior secondary schools in the state and which must be addressed to avert the re-occurrence of such in more schools by the examination body.

He explained that from the year 2018 to 2020, no fewer than seven of our public senior secondary schools were found to be involved in Exams Malpractice which led to their de-recognition by WAEC.

Similarly in 2022, the Ministry received a fresh set of six schools that committed the same offence and they were also de-recognised with a penalty of N500,000 fee per school payable to WAEC.”

Also said the menace of examinations malpractice had impacted negatively on the overall student’s performance in 2022 Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) final result in 2022.

He therefore said the percentage of 2022 result was 55.6 per cent as against 79.5 per cent for 2021 and this is in connection with the examination malpractice recorded in six of our schools.”

Adding that in view of that the Examinations Directorate of the ministry issued a sound warning to all principals in all schools to stay away from examination malpractice of any forms.

He stressed that “any principal found wanting again in any form of Exams Malpractice will be seriously punished and the penalty should be paid by the school.”

All efforts to get goverment reaction on how it intends to addressed the issue through the Commissioner for education Dr Aishatu Umar Maigari proved abortive.