The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is said to have added 27 schools on their blacklist.

These are both schools, in the junior and senior secondary level across the country, which are being held for alleged involvement in examination malpractices.

Confirming the news on the growing allegations, regional secretary of Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union (SLTU) in Western Region, Foday Kuyayeh, said WAEC did not only stop there but also removed all the examination centres from the affected  schools in addition to seizing their results of 2022/23 academic year.

“WAEC says if these schools want the examination centres back, each school must pay ten million old Leones (Le10M) and which is unfair.”

‘You will not punish a school three times for one alleged crime committed”, Kuyayeh said.

He called on WAEC authorities to sit down with the Union to discuss and find ways to resolve the issue.

Mr. Kuyayeh believes SLTU wants WAEC to recognize the centres in the 27 affected schools “so that pupils will take the examinations there starting this academic year”.

He suggested that WAEC must find ways to curtail  examination malpractice in all primary, junior and senior secondary schools nationwide.

He called on government through the ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and finance ministry to increase the school fees for pupils attending primary schools nationwide.

“Government is paying Le60,000 for pupils in senior secondary schools, Le50,000 for those attending junior secondary schools and Le10,000 for primary schools per term. The money for primary schools is too small considering the cost of maintaining the school buildings and furniture etc,” he observed.

Adding that there is need for government to critically look into the issue.

SLTU’s secretary says the union wants government to go back to the drawing board to increase the tuition fees for pupils attending primary schools.

Mr. Kuyayeh said there are several promotion and reassessment cases that are yet to be addressed by government, and had called on the authorities to seriously look into these issues.