According to WAEC officials in Enugu, Sit-At-Home Candidates are taking exams under trauma

The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) says many of its candidates sitting the ongoing senior school certificate examinations are doing so under traumatic conditions due to sit-at-home orders by IPOB.

No candidate in Enugu State has, however, missed the examination as a result, the body confirmed.

WAEC’s deputy registrar and zonal coordinator, Eucharia Onodu, on Tuesday, explained that the sit-at-home order only affected the students emotionally, as many of them had to sleep over in their school to be able to meet up.

According to her, some had to trek long distances, while others squatted with those in the hostels to be able to undertake the examination.

This, she said, may not be comfortable for them, adding that some had to also wake early to meet up.

“I am aware some made an extra effort, while others went through a lot of stress to write (sic) this exam. On our part, we did not compromise the protocols put in place.

“We still had the exams as scheduled on the timetable and I am happy that at the end they all made it.

“I do not think anyone missed the exam because of the sit-at-home order,” Mrs Onodu said.

The coordinator further said that the exam body had held a stakeholder meeting with the Ministry of Education on how to secure centres for the exam.

She said the commissioner reached out to the community leaders who assured WAEC of using local vigilantes to secure the centres.

“We felt their presence at the various centres across the state and I am glad to announce that no community has reported any attack so far.

“On our own, we used the regular police to escort security materials,” she said.

Mrs Onodu expressed satisfaction with the security situation put in place while expressing her optimism that candidates would perform better in 2021, as they were taught very well unlike in 2020 when they were only taught visually.

“They had lessons and ought to have covered the syllabus more than last year,” she said. 

However, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, had said on Monday that some centres in the South-East were disrupted on September 13.

According to him, the ministry would put modalities to ensure that the candidates who missed the examination were allowed to rewrite it.

“Besides the disruptions we had on September 13 in the South-East where some candidates were stopped from doing the exams, it was a peaceful examination,” he had said.