By: Aruna Kamara (BO)
The Public Relations Officer of Civil Society in the Southern Region, Joseph Blackie has described the ongoing 2022 West Africa Senior Secondary School Examination (WASSCE) as compromised, with massive examination malpractice.
Speaking to A-Z Newspaper in a downbeat in Bo, Mr. Blackie said that even though the current President is making frantic effort to sanitize the educational system in the country, there are people who are bent on throwing spanner into the good work of President Bio.
According to him, it is unfortunate that the standard of education is dropping, with public exams including the ongoing WASSCE exam being compromised, and with lot of foreign materials now having their way into WASSCE examination centers, while school authorities are aiding candidates to cheat in the exams.
“We have seen the Anti-Corruption Commission boss restless to track down those involve in examination malpractice in Freetown. We are also on it in the provinces and we have found out that in some examination centers pupils give monies to school authorities including invigilators of the exam in order to have access to the question papers’, he claimed, adding that we also caught pupils with android mobile phones in exam halls in the full view of WAEC invigilators and other school authorities.”
Mr. Blackie added that they are always disappointed listening to the Deputy Director of Education in Bo district that nobody is allowed to go to the examination Centers to monitor the exam, but failing to realize that Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education had given accreditation cards to journalists and CSOs to monitor the WASSCE exam.
He asked “But why is he changing the goal post in the middle of the game”, and revealed that most of the phones we caught at the WASSCE Centers have been delivered to the ACC office in Bo and I also want the director of Education in Bo District to know that the ACC is also part of the monitoring of the exam. So if we are not allowed, this is a clear indication that the ongoing WASSCE examination is compromised, with massive examination malpractice,” he concludes.
The Deputy Director of Education in Bo district could not be reached to react to the allegation but is quoted to have denied that he stopped CSOs and journalists with accreditation cards to monitor the WASSCE exams.
