House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education Examination Bodies has grilled officials of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, over observable irregularities, as well as deliberate subjection of students to midnight examination last week in Taraba State.
It would be recalled that the panel had earlier pledged to thoroughly investigate all circumstances surrounding the subjection of students to writing examination at night in some parts of the country.
The Chairman of the committee, Ofori Oboku, while declaring the meeting open, apologised to parents over what their children went through.
The Head of National Office, HNO, WAEC Nigeria, Amos Dangut, while responding to questions from lawmakers, admitted that the unfortunate incident happened when candidates were writing English Language examination.
He told the committee that there was a noticable compromise on the English Language papers that resulted in hitches in its conduct in many states.
He told the panel that the examination body had noticed that the paper had leaked three days to the examination day, adding that logistics challenge led to the incident.
“Normally when things like this happen, we institute investigation. We are in the process of treating this matter legally,” he stated.
He explained that the leakage of the compulsory paper was due to inability of the examination body to print its question papers, adding that it contracted it to printing companies for 73 years.
On the conduct of the examination, the top official said there were a lot of things that went wrong.
He had earlier hinted that the vehicle that conveyed the examination papers to Taraba developed fault on its way to the state capital, Jalingo, resulting into late night examination by students.
He disclosed that he wrote his own WAEC in 1986 in the afternoon.
He admitted that there were various issues leading to irregularities in the conduct of the examination adding that WAEC has three printing press where they usually print their question papers, but because of some unforeseen challenges, they had to outsource it to a private company.
Dangut also disclosed that legal action is ongoing with the company to address the issues and prevent future occurrence
He admitted that the question papers had leaked, forcing the body to change questions for students.
The examination body had to agree on setting a different set of examination for students.
Responding to questions, the head of WAEC Nigeria also admitted that there was late commencement of the examination, adding that some arrangements made include the use of torchlight, candle, as well as generator in those places.
