WAEC reveals exam questions versions it set per subject

The West African Examinations Council does not set two or more versions of exam questions for a particular subject as widely speculated by students and members of the public, a staff of the Council has told AcademicWeek.com.

It is over the past decade believed that the non-profit-making organization set multiple sets of questions per subject and that it’s able to replace any set of examination questions that leaks before the conduct of a subject paper.

But, an official of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) commenting on the long-believed rumour has said that is not the case on the side of his outfit adding that such an exercise is a huge task for the management of WAEC.

He explained the number of candidates in the country that partake in any of the examinations administered by the Examination Body each year will make it difficult for WAEC to print a different set of exam questions for each subject.

“That perception that WAEC sets multiple exam questions for a particular subject is never true. Last year 530,000 candidates registered for an examination so how can we print 530,000 questions two or three times,” he stated.

The WAEC official added that “It is not possible, there’s never any version of a particular subject examination question, for Basic Education Certificate Examination, West African Senior School Certificate Examination or Nov/Dec.”

According to the member of the not-for-profit organization (WAEC), the management of the Council set the National and International (BECE & WASSCE) examination questions only once and if it leaks nothing can be done about it.

“We can’t have our officials on the field with two or three sets of questions so that when something happens we’ll say, hey, change and give the candidates the other set. It is just not possible,” the Examination Council official noted.

This year, the not-for-profit-making organization (WAEC) says objective questions of the 2022 edition of BECE and WASSCE for School Candidates have been serialized as part of measures to curb examination malpractice.

Speaking in an interview monitored by AcademicWeek, the Head of Humanities and Languages Department – WAC Kofi Cyril, said objective questions serialization is among the numerous changes made by his outfit this academic year.

Explaining what the management of the non-profit-making organization (WAEC) describes as questions serialization, the WAEC staff said “this year’s WASSCE for School objective questions are similar but with varied positions.”