By Okey Alozie
The action of the West African Examination Council, WAEC to withhold results of the senior secondary school certificate examination of over 300 schools in Imo State for two years now has raised serious concern in many quarters.
The school children who took the SSCE in 2021 and 2022 are reportedly confused and stranded as a result of the withheld results by WAEC.
Their parents are now so worried over the withheld SSCE results in Imo State for two years now and counting.
Apart from the parents and their children who took the exams suffering the deregulation and the N500,00 sanction which WAEC demanded from each of the affected schools to pay, the school principals as we gathered are said to be recording low registration in their schools.
This paper gathered that Imo State students have resolved to register for SSCE in other States instead of Imo where they are not sure of getting their results.
Against this backdrop the Parents Teachers Association and Town Union leaders of various communities in Imo State that are affected have cried out to the government calling for the help of the Governor to see that the withheld results are released.
Some philanthropists as we were told have indicated interest to raise fund for the payment of N500,000 fine per school.
Feelers from government revealed that the governor has not made up his mind to pay for any fine, rather the government wants to take examination body, WAEC to court.
The aggrieved parents and their children who appear to be victimized by the seizure of their SSCE results have threatened to go on protest to register their anger.
Some of them as we gathered are now calling on the governor to give them approval to start contributing money to pay for this WAEC fine so that their children will get the result.
“We can’t continue to wait again, our stand now is that Governor should as a matter of urgency consider it necessary to give us approval for us to contribute money and pay for the fine.
“We want our children to get their results” one of the aggrieved parents stated.
It could be recalled that two years ago the West African Examination Council (WAEC) de-recognized some secondary schools in Imo for allegedly involving in Exam malpractice.
This year again being 2022 result in many schools were withheld because of the same allegation. The principals through their umbrella body call ANCOPSS said there was no established malpractice during the Exams.
WAEC also demanded N500,000 fine to be paid by each affected schools. Moreover, the school must pay N150,000 yearly during the period of the de-recognition.
For the two years the sanction has lasted. Each school is expected to pay N300,000 plus N500,000 which will be equals to N800,000. If you times it with about 300 secondary schools you will see that this is a big money.
Many are saying that this WAEC sanction is political motivated and a calculated attempt to destroy education in Imo State.
