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PRESS RELEASE
WAEC HOLDS COMMITTEE MEETINGS IN MONROVIA
The meetings of the various Committees of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Liberia were held in Monrovia from Monday, 14th to Friday, 18th November 2016. The Committees of the Council that met during the period included the Liberia Examinations Committee, the Liberia Appointments Committee, the Liberia Administrative and Finance Committee and the Liberia National Committee, which is the highest decision-making organ of the Council in Liberia. Members of the Committees include Government nominees, representatives of the Ministry of Education, Association of Liberian Universities, National Association of Liberia School Principals, National Teachers’ Association of Liberia, and other interests. The Statutory Chairperson of the Committees is the Deputy Minister for Instruction, who is the country’s Chief Government Nominee on Council, Hon. Dr. Romelle A. Horton.
The Liberia Examinations Committee received reports on the examinations conducted by WAEC in Liberia in the 2015/2016 reporting period. It considered reports on irregularity cases and sanctioned appropriately the candidates who were found guilty of complicity in examination malpractice. The Committee expressed delight that there was no leakage of question papers in Liberia during the reporting period. It was however, worried over the persistence of other forms of malpractice despite the measures put in place to forestall them, and called for greater vigilance on the parts of WAEC, the Ministry of Education and school authorities to ensure that persons of doubtful integrity were not entrusted with the conduct of public examinations. It also urged the Ministry of Education to apply stiffer sanctions against any teachers indicted for examination fraud to act as deterrents to others. The committee commended the Liberia police for taking prompt action on the report of burglary at WAEC’s depot in Konola in May 2016, and urged the police authorities to avail the Ministry of Education and WAEC of the outcome of the investigations to assist them in guarding against any future recurrence of the incident.
The Committee expressed deep concern over the continued poor performance of candidates in public examinations including WASSCE, and urged the Government, school authorities and other stakeholders in education to tackle head-on the factors identified in the WAEC Chief Examiners’ Reports and other research reports as being responsible for the worrisome trend. It urged the tertiary institutions in the country to create programmes/courses aimed at producing good quality teachers and sharpening the skills of those already in the school system. It also noted with delight the on-going arrangements for the introduction of 14 additional WASSCE subjects to give students a wider range of options that would facilitate their streaming into the Arts (Humanities),
Science and Business disciplines and enhance their performance. It urged the concerned ministries, departments and agencies to do everything necessary for the successful integration of the new subjects into the country’s curriculum and relevant syllabuses.
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