2024 BECE and WASSCE Revised Examination Rules To Be Careful About

Ahead of the 2024 BECE and WASSCE, WAEC has released its newly revised examination rules, which are worth knowing if you are a candidate, a teacher, a school, or any kind of education stakeholder.

The 2024 WAEC BECE and WASSCE Revised Examination Rules aim to safeguard the integrity of the examination, as examination leakers, both inside and outside of schools, prepare to enable cheating in WAEC administered examinations.

The Council, in its latest press statement on the registration of candidates for the 2024 examinations released on March 27, 2024, indicated that the revised rules are to assist it in dealing with cases of irregularity in its examinations.

The rules were first introduced in 2023, and the council deems it prudent to alter them to meet current needs.

What are the five 2024 WAEC BECE and WASSCE revised examination rules?

There are inscriptions on any part of the body or clothing.

This includes written or engraved, cut or carved letters, words, paragraphs, messages, etc., whether questions or answers to questions made and found on the skin, clothes, or any surface.

Schools, teachers, and parents should advise their students to desist from these acts. Any form of heating in this category will lead to problems.

Remember, if you find a candidate with material in the examination hall, you are considered to have found them.

(a) Any part of the candidate’s body;

This is precisely what it means.

(b) in or on the candidate’s desk or seat.

This is a dangerous one; hence, as a candidate, ensure that you check your desk very well and be sure that no one has written anything on it that relates to the examination. If you discover anything, inform the invigilator and request a desk change if necessary.

Posting live questions on the Internet

If a candidate posts or receives live questions or answers on social media, the Council’s appropriate Committee will withhold all of their results until the investigation concludes.

If WAEC finds a candidate guilty of this examination crime, they will cancel the entire result. The cancellation of the entire result encompasses the cancellation of all subjects’ results.

Avoid the temptation and avoid trouble.

If it turns out that any examination official(s) posted the live questions, they will face appropriate sanctions. We will also report the matter to the police for investigation and prosecution.

All examination officials who attempt to use their mobile phones to send questions to other candidates or syndicates must take note and avoid putting their names and professions in danger. Avoid attempting to assist others and risking your reputation as a teacher who has transitioned into an invigilator.

Refusal to grant timely access to the school premises

A school is deemed to have refused to grant examination official(s) timely access into the school premises or examination hall where it is found that the examination official(s) have identified themselves and they are not granted immediate entry thereafter into the school premises for whatever reason.

Often, schools that prevent the entry of examination officials are suspects when it comes to cheating in examinations. They frequently delay entry in order to hide their cheating from WAEC officials.

Misconduct of examination officials

(1) Where an examination official is found inside or outside the examination hall with any material relevant to the examination being conducted and which may impugn the conduct of the examination, the examination official shall be handed over to the police for investigation and prosecution. Additionally, the employer will receive a formal report about him or her.

(2) If the school authorities offer bribes to examination officials before, during, or after the examination period, the school will lose its recognition for two years, and the relevant conditions outlined in Rule 7 will apply accordingly.

Candidates who have registered multiple times

If a candidate participates in multiple registrations for the same examination and the investigation reveals that the candidate took the examination at more than one center, the appropriate Committee of the Council will withhold the candidate’s entire results until the investigation’s conclusion. The committee will cancel the candidate’s entire results if it finds the candidate culpable.

(2) Where a head of school(s) or its official(s) or representative(s) is/are found to have committed any of the offences listed below, before, during, or after the conduct of the examination;

(a) registering non-school or unqualified candidates for school examinations;

(b) fabricating or falsifying continuous assessment scores for the affected candidate(s) mentioned in (a) above.

Schools that engage in this will report to the Education Ministry and lose their status as WAEC examination centers for at least a year.

Read: 2024 BECE Sample Questions From the NaCCA New Update

(3) The committee will withhold the entire results of the non-school or unqualified candidate(s) who were beneficiaries of the school’s breach as described above, pending the outcome of an investigation by the appropriate Committee of the Council. The committee will cancel the candidate’s entire results if it finds them culpable.

All stakeholders must educate themselves on the additional rules explained above and ensure that they follow them during the 2024 BECE and WASSCE examinations.

Teachers and candidates must work as a team in ensuring that the new rules just as the old ones are followed during the conduct of the examination. Do not forget that the 2024 BECE and WASSCE Revised Examination Rules will be applied during the two examinations.