Echono frowned at the September 13 disruption of examination centres in the South East, particularly in Imo State.
Candidates who missed their exams during the 2021 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) due to the sit-at-home directive issued by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, have been assured by the Ministry of Education to be given another chance to write the examination.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Sonny Echono made this announcement on Monday, while monitoring some examination centres in Abuja.
Echono frowned at the September 13 disruption of examination centres in the South East, particularly in Imo State.
He, however, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the examination across the country which was written by over 1.57million candidates.
The Permanent Secretary maintained that the ministry will put modalities in place to ensure that the candidates who missed the examination in the South East are given other opportunities to write it.
“We are complying with all the standards and ethics of examinations, we are pursuing very hard more cases, incidence or possibilities of examinations malpractice because we have a zero-tolerance for examinations malpractice.
“We shall punish any person found culpable and ensure that sanity is restored in our system,’’ he said.
Echono explained further that Covid-19 pandemic was the only challenges encountered by the ministry when preparing the students for the examinations.
“All COVID-19 safety protocols are being strictly adhered to in centres across the country,” he said.
He said that although some schools were closed in states due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alternative arrangements were made especially for exit classes to take the examination.
Echono speaking on the possibilities of examination malpractices said that cases were usually collated at the end of the examination, pointing out that the culprits would also be brought to book.
He said the ministry was collaborating with relevant examination bodies and Non-Government Organisations to fish out candidates involved in examination malpractices.
“This is because we have a lot of miscreants who are perpetrating and deceiving people. We are going to undertake a general overhaul for all those offering so-called services to candidates.
“We didn’t see much of malpractices in internal examinations like this because these are students who are already in school,” he said.