Immediate past Nigeria Head of National Office (HNO), West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr. Patrick Areghan, who retired on October 1, 2023, shared his experience. In this interview, he spoke among others on how the council conducted exams in 2021 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the miracle or special centres and why the council conducts West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on credit.

Can you share your three years experience on the hot seat?

It has been a very rich experience for me and God has been faithful. I have gone through valleys and mountains in the course of discharging my duties as the Head of National Office WAEC Nigeria.

We should not lose sight of what happened in 2020, COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated the whole world. I was just coming into office when it happened. It unsettled everything but I had to relay on God to be able to me see through. To His glory we were able to navigate the COVID-19 period. We successfully conducted exams in 2020,2021, 2022,and 2023. It has been a really successful story.

Apart from conducting exams, managing human beings, I have been able to do a lot in this office by way of technological revolution innovations here and there. This is another very difficult assignment withering the storm in terms of relationship with our stakeholders and so on.

Are you leaving a healthy WAEC?

I am leaving a very healthy WAEC. I have taken WAEC to such a level that you can say WAEC is very healthy. We have computerised almost all our operations to the extent that things are no longer done manually. And in terms of conduct of examinations and release of results, things were done at a very fast pace.

Forty-five days after the conduct of the last paper, candidates had their results. This year, we were able to reduce it to 44 days. Simultaneously, we have certificates for the candidates at the same time with the results.

I am leaving a very healthy WAEC to the extent that they do all their things by applying technology. The council today is well staffed I have been able to do a lot of things for the staffs even though we do not have money, we are not borrowing.

The establishment of the printing press has added to our success story. What that means in terms of production of our exam security materials we can now look inwards. We can do it without any trepidation. It was not so in the years past when we used to spend millions of naira. Even though we are not self sufficient, but that has reduced the anxiety of handling printing materials and some other advantages attached.

I want to believe everybody is happy. We have not attained the best yet. The council is struggling in terms of finances. We do not have the money to do what we would have loved to do for staffs.

Can you recall any experience while monitoring WASSCE exam, the council’s main exam?

Examination malpractice remains a very big and sad experience as far as all examining bodies is concerned not just WAEC. We go round employing ad-hoc staffs to help administer exams. But they team up with unscrupulous elements to try to rubbish the integrity of the council and that of the examination. Good enough, we have been able to keep them at bay.

A situation where you go to an exam hall and see candidates still holding their cell phones while writing their examinations, which is against our rules. Some of these unscrupulous supervisors are the ones conniving with the candidates to go into the exam hall with phones. They snap and post to designated platforms.

Unfortunately, in spite of our preaching some are still falling prey to the activities of these fake websites. When you rely on that you cannot pass the exam because they turn out to be fake questions. They only photo shop put old question on the front page. They deceive candidates into thinking these are the current questions.

When you get to the exam hall, the reverse is the case. Even if some supervisors succeed in posting it online; even if some subscribers get hold of them, what are they going to do with them when examination is already in progress?

Even if it happens that way, we will still catch you because we have machinery in place. We know who is posting, whom it is posted and where it is posted. We just arrest you and hand you over to the police. You go and chat with police and you lose your result.

This has been my major experience going round examination centres in course of inspection. Uncooperative attitude of some of our supervisors is painful. These are the people trusted by the state ministries of education recommended to us and posted there. But they turn their backs on us. They connive with dubious school proprietors, principals to perpetrate examination malpractices.

Does WAEC have hand in some school owners, who collect money from candidates for WASSCE and few days before exam they abscond?

There will forever remain a gulf between WAEC and those notorious crooks. There is no relationship between WAEC and the so-called notorious crooks. Whatsoever they are doing, they are doing it on their own. WAEC has no business with any school collecting thousands of naira from candidates, or students, or from their parents.

Our examination fee is about N18,000. When they collect N50,000 or N100,000, they do not remit anything to WAEC because our fee is just 18,000. Schools pay online, whatever addition they collect, we do not know about it. That is why we are calling on regulatory agencies like the state Ministry of Education, to monitor all these schools whether private or public and bring those spoiling the name of the council to book.

It is unfortunate that they rip off children and their parents. Anybody telling you they remit money to WAEC let them show evidence. We are against it. We will never support it and we will never encourage it.

Why has exam malpractice persisted despite the council’s efforts?

Just the same way crime has refused to go in the society. You have the Ministry of Education, the Department of State Security, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps and others. You have them all over the place. Also, why is it that we still having armed robbery, kidnapping and banditry in our society?

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All over the world even in some primary school exams, they have traces of examination malpractice not to talk of higher institutions, colleges of education, polytechnics and universities.

We are doing our best. That is why we have deployed technology-using Candidates Identification Verification Attendance Malpractice and Post Examination Management System (CIVAMPEMPS). It is a technological device that we use to monitor the movement of supervisors, record attendance in the exam hall and monitor examination malpractice.

But what do they do? Smart Nigerians, they demobilise it and tell you its not working whereas it is working. We have got a way to catch them. As they are doing this, it is being registered in our central database. We also have Kapek, it is the Kapek calculator in the entire sub-region we use the same.

When you allow candidates to bring in anything in the name of devices to write the exam, they will input certain things into them. They will use them to cheat in the exam. That is why you have white branded calculators. It is a mathematical set, it is a calculator and it is unique all over the world. It is used in the entire sub-region.

That is what candidates use for our exam, all in a bid to check examination malpractice. We significantly reduced the issue of examination malpractice. We have various types and we have fought some to standstill. We will continue to fight them. Right now we have what we call complaints portal.

We display the cause of our holding your results and we give you room to you know explain yourself, to defend yourself.

It cannot be said that it has refused to go way. Nothing ever goes away, we are trying our best to ensure that it goes away.

There is so much noise about politicians and WAEC certificate. Don’t you think the council ought to have made clarifications immediately such issues are raised?

When you commit an offence and even in a court, even the judge cannot just say arrest the person and put him in jail. You will have to be charged to court before the judge presides over it. The fact that they are saying this and people expect us just jump into the case. It is not like that there has to be a formal complaint. There has to be a formal application. There has to be a request from a recognised court of law before WAEC can come in.

If for example you accuse your opponent, you go to court and the court subpoena WAEC and the council appears with all the relevant document and information needed. If you do not invite us, we will just be an interloper. We must be properly invited.

The investigating agencies like the police, EFCC, ICPC, also come here. They send us letters that they are investigating this and we supply them with the relevant information. But you as an individual you cannot tell us that you are suspecting your opponent that we should give you documents about your opponents, we will not do that. Even when we go to court, they say bring the duplicate of the certificate, does certificate have a duplicate?

The public should be properly informed. They are misinforming the people deliberately to twist power to their own favour. That is propaganda, deliberately manufacturing information to suit a purpose. We do not work with propaganda.

We are not politicians and we can never be dragged into politics. We must stand by the truth, no matter whose ox is gored. We can never alter our records we can never do the unethical. We must continue to do our work no influence, no power play. Nobody can make us to change the cause of events.

Why does CAS keep causing rifts every year between WAEC and some schools?

Some of the schools are dubious they want to manipulate. The law says when you are in SS1 the school uploads the CAS. When you are in SS2, the school uploads the CAS. When students are in SS3 when you are enrolling them you upload the CAS for the third year.

This is to stop migration of students from one school to another and to forestall a situation whereby you start manipulating figures. Cooking figures at the eleventh hour. When you are in SS1 your continuous assessment is uploaded. In SS2, it is uploaded. But they do not do that especially some private schools. They are waiting for the 11th hour to shop for candidates.

The Federal Ministry of Education does not allow enrolment of external candidates for the internal exam, which is the May/June WASSCE for school candidates. The private candidates exam is there for people who are already out of the school system. What happens is every Dick and Harry will go to them and they will enrol them.

In attempt to lock them out, this system was introduced. They want to manipulate that is why the noise. What is difficult in uploading SS1, SS2 CAS? They have even eased themselves of a lot of burden.

If you want to pull down what we have uploaded to replace it with a private candidate, you will have to pay. They will be making noise and nobody cares to ask them, where were they when other schools were doing their own? That is why we introduced access to CAS and registration details through the Chatbox. It will cost only N500 instead of you to come later and pay N5,000 as a parent you can have

Why do you conduct exam on credit?

Yes, education is a social undertaking. Education is the vehicle to success; the vehicle to development. When you set examination to make progress in life, you have helped that child. State government approaches us that we do not have the money now, that immediately after results are released or they are about to be released, they would pay.

That is the time we need the money to pay examiners, service providers and of course the money is not enough. We keep the money until it is time to pay supervisors, who conduct the exam, to prepare for the exam, to print and move exam materials and a lot of activities, which members of the public do not know. When the time comes, they renege on their promise. But when I came on board, I said I would not conduct exam for any bad debtor states. Unfortunately, it still happens like some states are owing us.

We still hold their result. Unless you pay we will not release the result. That is one of the strategies we have deployed to tackle the issue. We have to conduct exam because of the children but unfortunately they have disappointed us. Nothing like conducting exam on credit but there are some very good states.

I must mention them, states like Lagos, Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Even before you say pay, they will be the one to say how much is our money? Come and take your money. Why can’t other states emulate them. There are very good states in the North that are equally doing it. Last year, Adamawa State when we released the results, the governor gave directive that the money be paid immediately and it was paid. So also one or two other states.

As you are leaving office, how many states are still indebted to WAEC?

Some states are still indebted to the council. The chief debtors Zamfara State, is still highly indebted, that one I can tell you. Niger State paid and got the results