By Okey Alozie
There are strong indications that about 200 secondary schools in Imo State are likely to miss out from this year’s WAEC examinations.
West African Examination Council recently sanctioned over 200 secondary schools in Imo State for allegedly involving in examination malpractices during last year’s Senior WAEC examination in Imo Secondary Schools.
The affected schools were derecognized by the council and also fined, N500,000 each.
The principals of these secondary schools both public and private have protested against WAEC and uptil now the matter is yet to be resolved as the council has insisted that the punishment must hold even when the State Assembly had intervened on the issue.
The principals are hiding under the umbrella of the all Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools to make their protest against WAEC.
The principals have made it clear that there was no atom of truth in the allegations made by WAEC, adding that there was no evidence of Exam malpractices in all the schools in Imo State during the last WAEC exams.
Information revealed that pressure from candidates and their parents made the principals of the affected schools to go to WAEC few days ago but yet the officials insisted that the fine of N500,000 per school must be paid.
Trumpeta gathered that the students that have prepared for their exams are now crying because they are yet to know their faith.
While some principals have been alleged to have agreed with Parents Teachers Association members (PTA) to contribute money and pay off the N500,000 fine, others have insisted that they will not pay any kobo as fine since there was no evidence that there was malpractice in the last WAEC exams in Imo.
The aggrieved principals accused WAEC for being responsible for any Exam leakage. They also said that WAEC should be held responsible if there was any malpractice at all.
WAEC source revealed that the malpractice may be dictated at the marking stage. The WAEC as we gathered fined most of the principals in Imo State last year N100,000 each for not submitting their students continuous assessment at the appropriate time and these payments amounted to millions of naira.
