16 teachers, some of whom were exam officials, were detained at many testing locations around the nation two days into the 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) for School and Private Candidates due to their involvement in examination malpractice.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and local agents from the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) took them into custody and turned them over to the police.
The 16 are being prepared for trial.
The arrests
John Kapi, Head of WAEC’s Public Relations Unit, briefed the Daily Graphic that three teachers—Patience Serwaah, Oscar Ben Azumah, and Thomas Gyimadu—were caught assisting candidates at the Save our Souls exam centre in Bekwai, Ashanti Region. Two others, Christian Osei and Kyei Baffour Alex, unrelated to the exams but present at the same centre, were also arrested for attempting to assist candidates.
At Jinijini Senior High School in the Bono Region, invigilators Kingsley Boateng and Atibu James were caught taking snapshots of English Language question papers and sharing them on a WhatsApp group. Abeam Danso, an invigilator at Nkoranza Senior High School in the Bono East Region, was found with answers to Religious and Moral Education questions on his phone.
In the Greater Accra Region, teacher Amoako Joseph was caught at Chemu Senior High School for taking pictures of question papers and sharing them on a platform. Liberty Hills School invigilator Patrick Faaweerie was caught taking pictures of the Science paper. At Jachie Pramso exam centre in the Ashanti Region, invigilators Ebenezer Danso and Emmanuel Mensah were caught with a phone and paper containing answers to the English Language paper, respectively.
Four teachers from DESVY International School were arrested at Santoe Basic School exam centre for solving Science questions on their school bus for transmission to students. They were Thomas Ativor, Emmanuel Ammisah, Edwin Goodluck, and Richard Boateng.
He went on to say that district directors and supervisors attended briefing sessions before to the exam’s start, mostly to keep them informed about the new regulations controlling the examinations.
“Among other things, the supervisors were prohibited from bringing along mobile phones to the examination centres.
“A stern warning was issued against this practice. However, some chose not to heed this advice, and so have been arrested,” Mr Kapi told the Daily Graphic.
“Any such attempt is a breach of the rules of the examination. The questions are certainly within the reach of the candidates, and we believe that given the tuition they have all received, they should be able to answer and pass without seeking any form of assistance from any quarters.
“We do not want to be pushed into the unpleasant situation of cancelling any subject or the entire results of any candidate. We wish the candidates well in the rest of the papers,” Mr Kapi added.
