The Accra High Court has served an injunction to the West African Examination Council (WAEC), ordering the body to restrain from undertaking any activity in relation to the marking and grading of all WAEC organized examinations.

The injunction, dated Friday, September 25, 2020, follows claims by Africa Education Watch that WAEC has faltered in maintaining discreet the identity of 1520 of its examiners for the just-ended West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations.

According to Africa Education Watch, an Excel Spreadsheet containing the “specific names, schools, subject areas, telephone numbers and email addresses” of the examiners was intercepted on social media by its officers.

The High Court declares the act on the part of WAEC as “irregular, below standard and unacceptable” and states that WAEC “has been careless and irresponsible in their duties”.

It therefore has ordered the examination board to:

"Set aside every purported list, meeting or appointments meant to mark and grade the results of all WAEC examinations until new appointments are made to exclude every name on the leaked documents making rounds in the social media."

It further prayed the court to compel WAEC to "restrain itself, their agents and assigns from purporting to act in any manner that contravenes the laid down rules, regulations and general principles regarding the conduct of all External Examinations in Ghana".

WAEC has further been ordered to make appearance before the High Court within eight days after the writ has been served.

Failure to do show up on Thursday, October 8, 2020, at 9:00am will observe judgment passed in the examination body’s absence and without notice to it.

Application for the injunction, according to Africa Education Watch, comes after WAEC ignored previous cautions from them to appropriately deal with the issue.

It mentions in a statement that "giant steps" were taken to collaborate with WAEC to look into and find solutions to the matter by officially writing to WAEC, the Parliament and the Ministry of Education on August 18, 2020.

The NGO maintains that immediately after their official statement, the Minority in Parliament, Teachers Unions, and Civil Society Organisations joined in condemning the leakage, and further called for quickened investigations in order to protect the integrity of WAEC and the entire examination process.

It says instead of aptly handling the leakage, WAEC only issued a statement of apology, "admitting it was from their National Offices but downplayed its significance and further urging the public to ignore the list, as it was not their validated markers list".