Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Hon. Alpha Timbo is currently undertaking a nationwide social mobilization drive to sensitize community stakeholders on the need to discourage examination malpractice.
It could be recalled that candidates of the ongoing West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination rioted against officials of the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education monitoring the conduct of the examination.
The pupils were unhappy with the stringent measures instituted by the Ministry to discourage examination malpractices in this year’s WASSCE.
Addressing stakeholders of Falaba District, Minister Timbo said citizens must make conscious efforts to discourage pupils from engaging in examination malpractices.
He said this is important to build a better future for Sierra Leone.
He said an investigation carried out by the Ministry on examination malpractice revealed that there is a huge sygndicate for that, which involves the Parents, School Authorities, Teachers and even officials of the West Africa Examination Council.
He said a lot of people are making millions of Leones from the conspiracy, and therefore they have the tendency to resist moves to put the act to an end.
However he said, his Ministry is determined to restore sanity and integrity to Sierra Leone’s educational system.
The National Coordinator for the Free Quality School Education Programme Mr. Amara Sowa said The New Direction Administration is not just delivering Free Education, but one that is off quality standards.
He said, they want to take Sierra Leone from the situation where it graduates display poor reading and writing outputs.
For this reason he said they are trying cub-out examination malpractice for pupils and students to earn their certificates.
The Communication Specialist in the Ministry Mr. Ibrahim Sheriff said Examination Malpractice is an act the President, Rt. Brig. Julius Maada Bio seriously frowns at.
He said the act has the potential to messup the reputation of the country in the international arena, to a point students from Sierra Leone will have to defend their certificates to enroll in Universities Abroad.
This, he said is contrary to the desires of the President, who is making efforts to take the country back to the days, when it was Athens of West Africa.
He called on Parents in particular to encourage their children to study hard to pass their examination, instead of depending on paying monies for grades.
