Three teachers and two invigilators in the Ashanti and Bono Regions have been arrested for attempting to help students answer questions on the first day of the 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The incident occurred after several warnings issued by the West African Examination Council and some educationists, advising teachers to refrain from teaching students in the examination halls.
The arrest is part of the measures put in place by WAEC to prevent all forms of examination malpractice.
WAEC says it will ensure the prosecution of all teachers who have been apprehended for indulging in such practices.
Speaking on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning, the Head of Public Affairs of the council, John K. Kapi, said, “Per our rules, the possession of question papers in the course of the examination is against the WAEC law, and so these persons are going to be processed and taken to court, and they’ll be prosecuted.”
He added that the council is also compiling a list of teachers who are still actively engaged in the conduct to be submitted to the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) for action to be taken against them.
Aside from the incidents in the two regions, Mr Kapi noted that some teachers and students were also arrested in other regions, including Greater Accra and Ashanti.
As to why people are still indulging in the act even though it violates the council’s regulations, he said, “It is an attitudinal problem where some people think that they can do this and get away with it.”
He suspects that the assigned supervisors may not have effectively enforced the regulations for the invigilators before the start of the exams.
Mr Kapi stated that the Council has received approximately 65% of the funds from the government to commence the exercise, with measures being put in place for the release of the remaining balance to climax the process.
“Whatever we received is between 60 and 65 percent. As I speak, plans are afoot for the government to release the rest of the money to us to be able to complete the process and release results at the appropriate time,” he said on Joy Prime.