IPNews-Monrovia: A major controversy has ensued a day after report emerged that questionnaires of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), were leaked.

The head of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Liberia Chapter, Dale G. Gbotoe has alleged that some school administrators with “deliberate intentions” proceeded to defraud this year’s West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) process.

Mr. Gbotoe told a local daily in Monrovia that three school administrators from Montserrado and Grand Bassa Counties were caught carrying out examination malpractice just at the start of the test.

“One of those who were caught is a school administrator hired by WAEC to serve as supervisor for this year’s examination,” Mr. Gbotoe disclosed.

“He took the test to do multiple copies, so that it can be taken to students, when an officer who is assigned at one of the centers nabbed him with said document.”

The accused teacher, according to the WAEC boss, has been turned over to the relevant security authority for investigation.

He said these administrators and other workers are hired to work for WAEC during the exam period due to limited number of staff at the country’s office.

Gbotoe told newsmen that he is worried that if there is a proven fraud, they will have to reprint all the examination papers because students of all countries in the region are taking the same test. He said reprint will pose a lot of economic constraint of the country.

The total cost for conducting the entire examination in Liberia is US$3 Million – a cost the government has agreed to underwrite, Gbotoe said, adding that WAEC has received US$1.3 million of this amount.

At the same time, Mr. Gbotoe decried the delay in getting the needed budget in ad ministering the WASSCE Exams which has led to serious challenges for the conduct of exams.

He named some of the constrains as the delay in allowing the country office of WAEC to make timely request vendors to pre-finance the production of test materials.

“Recently, some of the vendors threatened to take us to court, but we had a dialogue with them, and we will be disbursing their money to them,” Gbotoe noted.

Gbotoe stated that there is an increase in the number of students sitting for this year’s WASSCE Exams as compare with previous years.

However, the WAEC boss stated that there are some students who did not complete their registration process in time, due to their schools the late submission or refusal by the school administrators to submit their names resulting into them sitting their test in separate hall to avoid leakage of test.

Describing these students as “walk-in candidates,” Mr. Gbotoe added: “These student names were not submitted by their schools; they came for the test and it was only noticed lately that their names and numbers were not on our lists.”

“They will have to pay for themselves, because the names we sent to government were the only ones paid for.”

He did not give the actual number of schools affected by this situation because, according to him, several schools are still reporting similar problems.

At the same time, Mr. Gbotoe has blamed the situation on the inability of some school administrators to do their work on their respective campus.

“When administrators sent names to the IT people who are doing businesses outside, they sometimes mixed up the names and pictures of different schools,” he said.

Meanwhile Mr. Gbotoe, is commending some schools for better coordinating their students during the administration of the Exams.

When contacted on the arrest of the three school principals, Police Spokesman H. Moses Carter, told IPNews that the three are being process and send to court.

Carter maintained that the Liberia National Police is still investigating and findings would be made public shortly. (Courtesy of IPNews & Frontpage Africa)