Posted by By SEUN ADESIDA on
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a nationwide cancellation of the English Language Paper 1 (Essay) of the ongoing May/June 2008 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. The paper was scheduled to be written yesterday morning.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has announced a nationwide cancellation of the English Language Paper 1 (Essay) of the ongoing May/June 2008 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. The paper was scheduled to be written yesterday morning.
WAEC boss Dr. Iyi Uwadiae who announced the cancellation at a press briefing in Lagos yesterday said the action was necessitated by the inability of the examination body to guarantee the integrity of the paper, since the council had good reason to believe that the paper had leaked.
He, however absolved WAEC officials of any duplicity in the leakage, attributing it to armed robbers who carted away parcels containing the question papers for the examination.
Uwadiae said: 'Recently, a gang of armed robbers attacked staff of the Council while conveying examination security materials that were relevant to the conduct of the ongoing WASSCE.
As a result of the ugly incident, the Council has been thrown into serious doubt about the integrity of the English Language Paper 1 (Essay) due to be administered this morning. As you all know, it is the practice of our organisation to discard any version of a test paper once its safety and integrity can no longer be guaranteed. It is for this reason, gentlemen, that Management has decided to reschedule English Language Paper 1".
He said that the details of the rescheduling have already been communicated to all the schools through WAEC's Zonal and Branch Offices nationwide.
The WAEC boss who profusely apologized for the abrupt cancellation said that the council had to take such a drastic action to safeguard the hard-earned integrity of WAEC. Even at that, he said, the decision was only arrived at after a marathon meeting of the WAEC management which was held till very late hours of Thursday.
Prior to yesterday's briefing, Saturday Sun had been inundated with calls, particularly from the Nsukka area of Enugu State, alleging massive leakage of the English exam. According to one of the callers, interested candidates were obtaining the ‘authentic' question paper at a give-away price.
Uwadiae, however said that the Friday press briefing was called to enable the media 'receive first-hand information about a certain development in the conduct of the ongoing May/June 2008 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. You should hear from us directly so that you can assist us to curtail the activities of rumour mongers by giving accurate information to our numerous stakeholders, particularly candidates and their parents".
As a follow up to the development, he said all top Management officers of the Council, including the HNO, will go to various parts of the country to continue the inspection of examination centres".
He also appealed to the media to take it upon themselves to also visit as many centres as possible to help monitor the examination, 'so that at the end of the examination, we could convene a more elaborate meeting to discuss our observations".
By Matthias Nwogu, Umuahia
The South-east Action Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on a fence-mending visit with aggrieved members of the party has denied ever wooing back to its fold, members and the leadership of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Abia State.
Chairman of the Action Committee and former Governor of old Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo said the insinuation should be regarded as a rumour that was incorrect, uninformed as well as uncomplimentary to the committee.
In a communiqué issued after a two-day visit to Umuahia, Abia State during which the committee met with the leadership of the party in the state, Senator Nwobodo said the denial was sequel to the state PDP wholesome acceptance of the insinuation, which was hurtful and offensive to it.
'The suspicion that the South East Action Committee would woo or have raproachment with PPA government of Abia State was hurtful and offensive to the Abia State PDP, the Action Committee states categorically that such insinuations were incorrect and uncomplimentary to the committee and should be treated as mere rumour and propaganda."
According to the communiqué signed by Senator Jim Nwobodo, the committee noted that Abia PDP was battle-weary and was concerned more on 'how to reclaim Abia State mandate to govern Abia State" and would concentrate on that before looking at other issues.
On the last congress of the party, it noted that it was peaceful and that where there were pockets of differences, they were being managed through dialogue within the party.
The Abia PDP it said, expressed regret that the party at the National and Zonal levels had not shown enough concern in supporting the state in 'reclaiming its mandate, adding that 'the true test of the cohesion and strength of a political party lies in the stand it takes and the nature of support it gives when one of its constituencies has an unfinished struggle".
The committee said it regretted the communication gap between it and the state PDP leadership and promised to bridge it by writing a letter including in it its seven-point terms of reference for the perusal of the latter.
The two-day meeting was attended by members of the committee including Prof. A. B. C. Nwosu, former Health Minister, Prof. Sam Igwe, Hon. Lynda Ikpeazu as well as Senator Nkechi Nworgu, among others.