The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has revised its examination rules on the use of mobile phones, with effect from next year.
The revised rule is that any candidate caught with a mobile phone or any electronic communication device in the examination hall will have his or her entire results cancelled.
The Principal Public Relations Officer of WAEC, Mrs Agnes Teye- Cudjoe, who disclosed this in an interview explained that the decision was to deter candidates from carrying mobile phones and other communication devices to examination halls.
She said even though the new rule would take effect from 2014, the WAEC would embark on sensitisation programmes to ensure that students understood the implications of indulging in such practices before writing any of its examinations.
The Principal Public Relations Officer said the rule covered all its examinations — the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) as well as the regular and private West African Senior School Examination Certificate (WASSCE).
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said prior to the new rule, candidates caught with mobile phones in WAEC examination halls only had the particular paper they were writing at the time they were caught with the mobile device cancelled, “but now, we are going all out,” she stressed.
She said even though the council had introduced a metal detector at most of its examination centres,
malpractices continued to occur.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe blamed the invigilators at the various centres for not doing their work well which had resulted in the council’s inability to fight such malpractices.
The practice, she said, was common in the private WASSCE, but pointed out that the in-school examinations had also begun recording the use of mobile phones during examinations.
Mrs Teye-Cudjoe said, for instance that in 2011, as many as 282 candidates were caught with mobile phones in the examination hall while in 2012, 171 candidates were caught with mobile phones.
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