Eleven teachers and a headmaster have been arrested for alleged malpractice in the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
They were arrested by security personnel of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), in collaboration with the National Security on Monday.
The 12 were picked up at two examination centres in the Offinso Municipality of the Ashanti Region and the Senase R/C Basic School in Berekum of the Bono Region.
A source at WAEC told the Daily Graphic in an interview that at the Offinso Methodist JHS examination centre, a teacher of the Offinso State ‘A’ Junior High School (JHS) was allegedly caught collecting money from the candidates while distributing the Social Studies answer booklets.
According to the source, when the teacher was questioned, she admitted to collecting the money but explained that the candidates decided to contribute the money to her for free.
However, WAEC officials believed that the money was meant to influence the invigilator to enable the candidates to indulge in examination malpractice.
In the second case, also in the Offinso Municipality, nine teachers and a headteacher were arrested at the Dwamena Akenten M/A JHS examination centre after they were spotted desperately solving the objective part of the Social Studies paper in the morning.
The source further said at the Senase R/C Basic School centre, Ransford Osei, an invigilator, was apprehended for allegedly taking shots of the Social Studies paper, which was being written in the morning, and sending the snapshots to a friend to solve for him.
However, while Osei was being escorted by the police, he absconded.
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Advice
Commenting on the development, the Head of the National Office of WAEC, Mrs Wendy Addy-Lamptey, assured the candidates that they could do well without resorting to malpractice, including cheating.
She advised the candidates to manage their time well to be able to answer all the questions, adding that they should also read the questions thoroughly before starting to answer.
While wishing the candidates the best of luck, Mrs Addy-Lamptey advised them to take enough rest “and not be anxious but focused and write what you know”.
She expressed concern over the fact that teachers engaged to invigilate or supervise the examination were rather engaged in malpractice and asked the candidates to reject offers from such invigilators because they could equally be wrong.
Smooth take-off
Meanwhile, the examination commenced smoothly at all centres across the country.
A total number of 571, 894 candidates are expected to sit for the exams which started on Monday, November 15, 2021.
It will end on Friday, November 19, 2021, at 2,158 centres nationwide.