The Registrar, West African Examinations Council (WAEC) International office, Dr Iyi Uwadiae, will complete his tenure month-end.
During a tele-conference from the Ghana headquarters of the council on Wednesday, Uwadiae told reporters at the WAEC International office in Lagos that his seven-year tenure (consisting of a five-year official tenure and two year extension) as the 12th registrar of the Council, had been successful.
Uwadiae, who took over from another Nigerian, Alhaja Mulikat Bello on October 1, 2012, however refused to name his successor. He said the successor, who has already been appointed would be named when he assumes office on October 1, 2019.
“I anticipate that you will be anxious to know who is going to succeed me. I am glad to inform you that my successor has been appointed. I will however, want to appeal to you to grant me the indulgence of not unveiling the personality at this forum, as you are quite aware that the Council has an official process of doing so soon after assumption of office. There will be a press release or conference to that effect,” he said.
During his tenure, Uwadiae said the council was able to complete its headquarters which took 15 years to build in 2016.
He added that Liberia fully adopted the WASSCE from 2018, while the Council increased additional diets of the WASSCE and Basic Education Certificate Examination for private candidates in member countries.
To prevent examination malpractice and leakages, the Registrar said the Council decided to acquire facilities to print in-house.
“The Secretariat paid the deserved attention to the issue of examination leakage and resolved to settle for nothing short of total eradication of the nuisance. We pursued a status of self-reliance in printing services which could guarantee our set target of 100% in-house printing of question papers. As at now, each national office has reached a certain stage in the establishment of an in-house printing press. Other types of malpractice also received our deepest reflection, as the Council constructed or furnished for use its own standard/model examination halls in places like Lagos and Benin City in Nigeria, Accra, Cape Coast, Wa and Koforidua in Ghana and Tubmanburg in Liberia,” he said.
On the use of technology, Uwadiae said the Council under him had used software and various gadgets to prevent and check examination malpractices.
“We built tighter security around our examination materailas and conduct as various gadgets and software were deployed for identification of candidates, capturing of data and detection of irregularities at examination centres,” he said.
Uwadiae also said the tele-conference facility used for the press conference was being used for the first time.
He said the facility was in place in three of the five-member countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria and Gambia.
