Kogi state government has banned 47 schools from presenting candidates in the 2018 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) due to their earlier disqualification by the West African Examinations Council. The 47 schools had been disqualified by the West African Examination body due to their persistent involvement in examination malpractices.
The commissioner for education, science and technology, Mrs. Rosemary Osikoya, disclosed this recently in Lokoja, the state capital.
“Kogi state received a correspondence from the WAEC de-recognising the 47 schools that were found to have engaged in malpractice. After our review, we discovered that most of them were private schools. In particular, 13 of those schools were found to be habitual offenders.
“The ministry of education’s position is that for the year 2018, the schools would not write the WASSCE, as their students would be made to go to other schools.”
She described the affected schools as suspected ‘miracle centres’, where people go to write WASSCE without following normal procedure.
The commissioner stressed that the ministry could not close its eyes to the rising cases of examination malpractice in the state, adding that it was an embarrassment that the state was taking the lead in such negative acts.
The commissioner cited some administrative lapses and breach of laid down rules in the transfers from one school to another and announced a ban on the transfer of students at the level of SSIII, adding that if transfers must take place, they must be limited to SSII.
This, she said is the appropriate thing, especially as the students are required to pass through Continuous Assessment.
She promised to make some reforms to strengthen institutions in the state to deliver proper services.
Osikoya also warned against politicising education, and urged the public to support the fight against examination malpractice.
She dismissed the speculation that the state had perfected plans to sack some of its teachers.
