As part of efforts to improve the conduct of examinations in West Africa, the regional examination body, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has approved two new regulations. Candidates who flout these regulations will have their results withheld. The regulations which take effect from next year, include sanctioning of candidates who contravene instructions and write with pencil instead of ink or shade in ink instead of pencil. Also the rules apply to candidates who fail to complete the cover page of the answer booklet as specified in the instructions. The Deputy Registrar in charge of International Examinations Department, Charles Eguridu, disclosed this at the WAEC Day Students' symposium held on Monday in Accra. It was on the theme: "Improving education assessment processes through I.C.T. and current trends in examination malpractices". More than 500 students drawn from Accra Girls, Labone, Ebenezer, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Odorgonor and City Business High Schools in Accra attended the programme as part of activities to mark WAEC's 56th anniversary celebration. The symposium was aimed to educate stakeholders in education, particularly students, on the operations and activities of WAEC. He explained that after withholding the candidates' entire results, WAEC will apply appropriate sanctions such as the cancellation of the subject results. Mr. Eguridu mentioned examinations conducted by the WAEC for candidates in the country to include the Basic Education Certificate Examination, the West African Senior School Certificate Examination, the General Advance Business Certificate Examination in addition to aptitude tests such aS the Agricultural Colleges Entrance and the Animal Health Seleccion Examinations. Presenting a paper on examination malpractices, WAEC Deputy Registrar, Reverend Nii Nmai Ollenu, stated that the most prevailing type of malpractices which school candidates engaged in during examination was collusion. He noted that incidence of malpractices recorded in 2006 examinations increased sharply over that of 2005. Rev. Ollenu said 1,032 collusion cases were recorded in 2005 as compared to the 6,163 cases recorded in 2006 showing an increase of 500 percent. "These collusion cases took place in the various school centres but were not reported to WAEC by the school authorities. It was detected during the marking of the papers," he stressed. Rev. Ollenu therefore cautioned the students not to engage in any form of malpractices during examination in order not to jeopardise their future. He said the only way for them to pass their exams was to concentrate on their studies as well as to observe simple rules before, during and after the examination, noting that a "chunk of these rules touches on avoidance of examination malpractice". Source: The Times