The 12th Registrar of the West African Examinations Council WAEC, Iyi Uwadiae has given account of his 7 years stewardship as a registrar as he announced his retirement at the end of his tenure, which ends in September, 2019.
Uwadiae while speaking to education correspondents at the WAEC International Office in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos State, through a tele-conference from Ghana headquarters says during his tenure, the council completed its headquarters, which took 15 years to build, in 2016.
According to Uwadiae, “Liberia fully adopted the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations ( WASSCE) in 2018, while the Council increased additional diets of the WASSCE and Basic Education Certificate Examination for private candidates in member-countries”.
Commenting on efforts to prevent examination malpractice and leakages, the Registrar said the Council acquired facilities to print in-house.
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“The secretariat paid the deserved attention to the issue of examination leakage and resolved to settle for nothing short of total eradication of the nuisance. We pursued a status of self reliance in printing services, which could guarantee our set target of 100 per cent in house printing of question papers.
“As at now, each national office has reached a certain stage in the establishment of an in-house printing press. Other types of malpractice also received our deepest reflection, as the Council constructed or furnished for use its own standard/model examination halls in places like Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria, Accra, Cape Coast and Koforidua in Ghana and Tubmanburg in Liberia,” he said.
On the use of technology, Uwadiae said the Council under him used software and various gadgets to prevent and check examination malpractices.
“We built tighter security around our examination materials and conduct as various gadgets and software were deployed for identification of candidates, capturing of data and detection of irregularities at examination centres,” he said.
The outgoing registrar further said his successor, who had been appointed, would be named when he assumes office on October 1.
“I anticipate that you will be anxious to know who is going to succeed me. I am glad to inform you that my successor has been appointed. I will, however, want to appeal to you to grant me the indulgence of not unveiling the personality at this forum. As you are quite aware, the Council has an official process of doing so soon, after assumption of office. There will be a press release or conference to that effect,” he said.
