Tina Amanda
The South-South Zonal Coordinator for the West African Certificate Examination, WAEC, Gershon Dandak, has called on principals and head of schools to ensure candidates for the 2019 WASSCE examination in the Rivers state get the appropriate question papers uniquely printed for them.
Mr Dandak who stated this while fielding questions from our reporter Tina Amanda, said this year’s WACE question papers are printed with electronic bar codes.
According to him, errors have been observed in the distribution of the question papers by some schools, stressing that each paper can only be accessed by the candidate whose code is on it.
“In a few schools, we had instances where there was a wrong distribution of the question paper, unlike the previous years, most of our question papers now come in forms referred to variable data printed codes. What that means is, each student’s question paper is printed uniquely with a bar code and it is only unique to that candidate. No other candidate can use another candidate’s question paper. The responses of each candidate are captured on the paper too, and also serves as answer booklet”
He urged parents and heads of school to ensure candidate submit their passport for the photograph amendment before 31st May.
“We have what we call a photo verifier installed in our systems now, at the end of the registration we pass every candidates’ registration through the photo verifier, and it has flashed some pictures as not our quality. We have written to such schools. All we need is just for the affected candidates to submit new photographs to our nearest office. No fee is attached and no principal is allowed to charge students for amendment of the photograph”
He further cautioned schools to desist from selling smart cards to students, adding that it is part of the items given to students for free during their registration to enable them to check their first result online.
Dandak stressed that the 2019 WASSCE has been going smoothly, as there have been few exam malpractices recorded, unlike previous years.
