The federal government has assured that candidates who missed the 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in the south-east will be given another opportunity to write the exam.
According to NAN, Sonny Echono, permanent secretary, federal ministry of education, broke the news when he visited some examination centres in Abuja on Monday.
On September 13, several students partaking in this year’s WASSCE in the south-east missed their English Language (essay and objective) paper.
TheCable Lifestyle had reported how suspected gunmen chased away some of the students from taking the exam in Imo state.
The development had come amid the sit-at-home order enforced by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the region.
Commenting on the incident, Echono condemned the disruption of WASSCE in the south-east.
Echono said the ministry will put modalities in place to ensure that the candidates who missed the examination in the south-east are given other opportunities to write the examination.
The permanent secretary added that the ministry is satisfied with the conduct of this year’s WASSCE across the country so far.
“We are very pleased that all around the country; examinations are going on peacefully as we have a total of over 19,000 exams centres across the country with over 1.57 million registered candidates,” he said.
“Besides the disruptions we had on September 13 in the South East where some candidates were stopped from doing the exams, it is a peaceful examination.
“We are complying with all the standards and ethics of examinations, we are pursuing very hard more cases, incidence or possibilities of examinations malpractice because we have a zero tolerance for examinations malpractice.
“We shall punish any person found culpable and ensure that sanity is restored in our system.”
Echono said apart from the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry did not encounter challenges in preparing students for the examinations.
He added that although some schools were closed in states due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative arrangements were made especially for exit classes to take the examination.
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