The West African Examination Council (WAEC) stated that it has uncovered 56 website operators that were involved in leaking its exam questions.
The Head of National Office, Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Areghan during the monitoring of exams in some Government Secondary Schools, disclosed that the identified website operators would be prosecuted as soon as possible.
Mr. Areghan blamed some WAEC supervisors for playing a role in the leakage of the exam questions in a bid to make money from it. He stated that these supervisors snap and send exam questions to their syndicate groups before the exam commences. He however disclosed that the council has no control over social media.
In his words,
“We have a regulation to release papers to supervisors one hour before commencement time to enable them to go from the collection point to the administrative point because of distance in some schools. But what they do is snap the question papers and send them to their syndicate groups.
“You now begin to ask questions about what they are trying to achieve with it. Candidates are already in the exam hall, and you are posting the questions. Sometimes, they change the front of the questions and add 2023 for exam questions of 2020. Some gullible parents and students will go for it and destroy themselves because there is no way they can get our questions”.
Mr. Areghan, therefore, disclosed that WAEC has put in place some technology that would detect any form of mischievous conduct from anywhere. Also, the commission has advised parents to encourage their children/wards to study hard and desist from patronizing these evil peddlers who are all out to destroy the destiny of their children. Parents are equally advised to stop funding these illicit acts.
Investors King understands that leakage of WAEC exam questions has been going on for a long time, as past questions were being posted via WhatsApp and criminal websites by fraudulent individuals, which they claim are yet-to-be-written papers.
WAEC in 2020 disclosed that it has not experienced leakages since 1977, but some supervisors engaged by the Ministry of Education deliberately send the questions to some syndicate groups.