The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has come out to clear the air on all issues of leaked examinations papers at the just ended WASSCE. They emphatically stated that the purported leaked papers that characterized this year’s examinations turned out to be fake.
Addressing the media on occurrences during the conduct of the WASSCE for school candidates, Head of the National Office of WAEC, Mrs. Wendy E. Addy-Lamptey stated: “As widely reported by the Media, there was an alleged widespread leakage of questions on most of the social networks and as is usually the case, WAEC was taken to the cleaners.
The truth, however, is that, for each paper, there were several versions on social media but these questions were not genuine. The reactions of some students after the Integrated Science paper, for instance, lends credence to this fact.
When the purported leaked question paper turned out to be fake, an incredulous story was immediately hatched. To wit, that a new set of questions were immediately printed for the test. Such claims can only be made by persons who don’t know about the time and logistics needed to complete, typeset, print, pack and distribute question papers to various depots nationwide”.
She furthered that these occurrences are as a result of the operations of rogue websites, of which candidates have been consistently cautioned against.
Mrs. Addy-Lamptey noted that works of this nature go beyond circulating fake questions on social media as they also claim to be able to alter results for candidates.
She cautioned that patronizing these websites and Whatsapp groups not only throw money away but also means abetting in the crime.
Rogue Websites
Prior to dates set for the various papers to be written by candidates, some of these rogue sites predicted questions and topics, others uploaded pictures of past questions. Also, some managed to obtain snapshots of the actual question paper after the start of the examination, forwarded same to be worked out and sent the solutions to candidates thus creating the desperate need for some candidates to send their phones to the examination hall to receive solutions.
Background
On Friday 7th August 2020, news circulating had it that the Integrated Science Paper scheduled for Monday 10th August 2020 was leaked and was circulated widely on social media but the questions were later changed.
On the evening of Sunday 16th August, purported Core Mathematics paper scheduled for Monday 17th August was seen circulating on social media with worked-out answers. Some thought they were fake but were later proven to be true as the questions circulated were contained in the very paper written on Monday.
As though the leakage of the core Mathematics paper was not worrisome enough, evidence exists pointing to leaked Chemistry and Economics papers along similar lines.
However, WAEC had assured that question papers for the 2020 BECE are under lock and key and will under no circumstances leak.
“All questions papers have been produced under tight security under the surveillance of the Ghana Police and WAEC Security
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah