Sierra Leone News: WAEC Complains over Closure of Offices
By Alusine Sesay
The national office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has complained over closure of its offices and harassment of staff by the Sierra Leone Police and officials of the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Examination (MBSSE).
The national office said in a statement on Monday that “on Thursday October 3, 2019 at about 7:30pm, monitoring officials of Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Examination (MBSSE), and officers of the Sierra Leone Police Force barricaded the Freetown office situated at AJ Momoh Street Tower Hill, on the allegation of a tip-off they had on examination malpractice, alleged to have taken place at Agape Experimental School, Goderich”.
“This continued until Friday October 14, 2019, when they closed all the offices and prevented staff from entering to carry out their duties,” WAEC said in a statement.
WAEC said, “In the process they searched various offices of staff, the strong and script room and later they carted away a huge volume of sensitive and confidential materials including the following: Leftover of constrained question papers for the just concluded for the WASSCE for private candidates, 2019; pre-printed objective answer sheet for some clustered papers; completed malpractice forms from various examinations centers for WASSCE private candidates,2019; question banks for various examinations and subjects containing questions subsequent years; plans of work for Home Science Practicals; past question papers for the previous years; draft marking schemes for WASSCE for private candidates,2019; code of conduct for staff of WAEC; telephone directory containing the mobile numbers of staff; and the organogram of the council.”
The National Office added, “They thereafter closed the script rooms which is at the of the operations of WAEC, in contravention of council’s rules and regulations governing the post-examination activities, arrested and humiliated some staff of the council. The closure of the scripts room has therefore forestalled all the on-going examination activities.”
WAEC is an autonomous examining board, established by law to determine the examinations required is the public interest in English speaking West Africa Countries to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent to international examining authorities.
“WAEC wishes to assure the public of its total commitment to serve in their best interest and register its unflinching support to free quality education. we are constrained to inform the public that work cannot go until access is gained into the scripts room and confidential documents carted away are properly checked and accounted for in the presence of MBSSE officials, the Sierra Leone police force and the press.”
