By Vivian Deladem & Faith Adeosun

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) continues to receive knocks, following the recent conduct of one of its papers, English language, in the night at the ongoing 2025 edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in some parts of the country.

Parents and teachers who spoke with The Hope over the weekend were reacting to the incident in which students had to rely on flashlights, lamps and phone torches to answer their questions late in the night.

A secondary school teacher, Mr Bismarck Siaw, attributed the incident to power outage, insecurity, logistics and leakage of questions.

He said, “I’ll say it we got to this point by WACE itself trying to curb examination malpractice by all means. Everyone contributed to this shameful decadence in the education sector and everyone also has a role to play in solving it.”

Mrs. Comfort Akintade, a teacher, said that the incident could have serious implications for the WASSCE candidates, such as increased stress, examination malpractice and even exposure to danger on their way home.

She said, “writing exams in the dark can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety for students which can ultimately lead to mass failure. Not only that, it’s dangerous for candidates to finish their exams and be going home at such an odd time of the night, especially the girls.”

 Mr Lawrence Azewale, also a teacher, stated that WAEC board should make it mandatory to conduct examinations during the day alone, to avoid putting the lives of students in danger.

Mrs. Edith Udo, a parent, recommended that to avoid a recurrence, government and school proprietors in various schools should Improve on school infrastructure and invest in reliable power supply, adding that the examination body should also improve on its logistics.