Seven teachers have been arrested for various examination infractions in the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), the West African Examinations Council has confirmed.
The arrests were made through WAEC’s monitoring systems and information received from whistleblowers.
In an interview on Monday evening, Mr. John K. Kapi, Head of Public Affairs at WAEC’s National Office, disclosed that three of the suspects were picked up in the Central Region, two in the Bono Region, and two in the Ashanti Region.
Mr. Kapi explained that some of the teachers smuggled mobile phones into examination halls to aid malpractice. Investigations further revealed that some solved questions on external platforms, while others used AI tools such as ChatGPT. In some cases, candidates or facilitators reportedly took snapshots of examination questions during the papers.
The suspects have since been handed over to various police stations for further investigations.
Mr. Kapi commended whistleblowers for their vigilance in exposing the malpractice and helping to safeguard the integrity of the examination process.
He added that WAEC has implemented measures to ensure the timely distribution of question papers and answer booklets across all examination centres nationwide.
While acknowledging minor challenges at a few centres, Mr. Kapi noted that overall, the conduct of the examination on the day had been successful.
He urged all stakeholders to remain alert and cooperate with authorities to curb examination malpractice and uphold standards in the education system.
