The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it has uncovered a grand scheme by some schools to engage in mass cheating in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) taking place in one thousand centres across the country.

According to WAEC, some candidates in various regions are being asked to pay between GHC200.00 and GHC500.00 in exchange for assistance from compromised invigilators.

A statement sighted by JoyNews also disclosed that some supervisors at specific examination centres have schemed to assign teachers to invigilate subjects they teach, raising concerns about fairness.

Additionally, WAEC discovered that some schools have registered individuals who are not genuine students of the institutions, further undermining the integrity of the examination process.

Speaking to JoyNews, the Head of Public Affairs, John Kapi, cautioned school heads and their collaborators to desist from the practice or they will be sanctioned accordingly.

"We have picked up intelligence from a number of places across the country but for very obvious reasons I wouldn't want to put the names out there because we wouldn't want them to cover their tracks. However, we are very much aware that they are charging candidates between GHC200 and GHC500 in some areas, then also there are plans for the supervisors to use handpicked teachers to invigilate the subjects that they teach which is against our rules.

"We don't allow subject teachers to invigilate subjects they teach. There are also other areas where people have constituted groups stationed at vantage points to receive question papers, solve and send the responses by electronic means to the invigilators to pass it on to the candidates.

"These are things that we have picked up and we are sending out our agents to follow up on these things to ascertain the veracity and if possible bring to book all those who are breaching the rules of the examination."

The WAEC commenced the administration of practical and theory papers for WASSCE for School candidates on Monday (19 August 2024).

This follows the administration of the Visual Art Project work from 5 to 16 August 2024.

The examination is expected to end on Friday (20 September 2024).

A total of 460,611 candidates made up of 212,954 males and 247,657 females drawn from 1,003 schools have been registered for the examination.