WAEC has revealed that about 1.6 million candidates are expected to participate in this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examination which has been scheduled to begin on August 16. This was revealed by the Head of the National Office of West African Examination Council, Mr Patrick Areghan, in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.

He stated that the council was working with relevant stakeholders to ensure a hitch-free WASSCE for school candidates, in spite of some challenges.

According to him, the entire process of conducting the examination – from the printing of examination materials, distributing them, and ensuring security, to the recruitment of Adhoc staff and printing certificates – is a huge financial burden.

He noted that the West African School Certificate was internationally accepted and required protection of its integrity.

He urged schools and candidates to get themselves well prepared ahead of the examination, warning that the council would not tolerate any acts capable of undermining the integrity of the examination.

“We have in-built mechanisms to detect every act of cheating; cheats, when caught, will not get their results.

”Even if you cheat in our objective test, we will catch you, using technology. This technology is called the Item Deferential Profile; it has been there for quite sometime,” he said.