In a bid to combat rampant exam malpractices, the Minister of Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum, has revealed plans to introduce question randomization for exams conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The move comes in the wake of the cancellation of over 3,500 students' results in the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) due to alleged exam misconduct.
The Minister, addressing journalists in Accra, emphasized the government's commitment to addressing challenges within the education sector.
He highlighted the success of a similar approach taken in the past, stating, “We worked with WAEC to introduce what we call serialization of questions. If you buy any questions, you may not know if the questions are for your region.”
Yaw Osei Adutwum outlined the upcoming policy, stating, “We are now going on a journey to randomize also WAEC exams. C
candidates can sit in the same room as other candidates, but the questions will be randomized.
How can you cheat? So this cheating business, we are going to stop it. We as a government are committed to ending cheating; we have begun on a journey that our results and questions are genuine.”
The move responds to the recent exam irregularities, where WAEC canceled the results of thousands of students for various reasons, including failing to return learning support materials and providing artificial intelligence-generated answers during the 2023 WASSCE.
