Prof Ruqayyat Rufai, Minister of Education, announced in Abuja on Wednesday while briefing State
House Correspondents on the outcome of the weekly FEC meeting that the government
has approved the amendment to an Act of the West African Examinations Council,
part of which will make culprits of examination malpractice to be liable to
five-year jail term or N200,000 fine or both.
Rufai said the decision of the meeting, which was
presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, was to “give effect to the
revised convention of WAEC, 2003 in Nigeria.”
She said the Council had subsequently directed the
Ministry of Justice to take further necessary action on the subject.
Rufai had recently presented a memo to FEC, seeking
its approval for the enactment of an Act to amend the WAEC Act, CAP W4, Laws of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004 with the aim of giving effect to the
revised convention of WAEC, 2003 in the country.
The 2004 Act, “empowers WAEC to take disciplinary
action against those who have committed both the offences and penalties for
illegally using examination papers and leakage of examination papers.”
Section 19(1) of the Act reads in part, “Such
candidate shall not take or be allowed to take or continue the examination; in
addition, he shall be prohibited from taking any examination held or conducted
by or on behalf of the Council for a period of two years immediately following
upon such contraventions.''
“If a candidate aforesaid has already taken any
papers at the examination, his result therefrom shall be cancelled.
“In addition, the candidate may be prosecuted and if
found guilty, shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N200, 000 or
imprisonment for a term of five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) is sub-continental examination body was established
in 1952 with Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia and later joined by
Liberia in 1974.
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