By Bampia James Bundu
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) have postponed the first paper in this year’s school-leaving WASCE exams due to lack of sufficient personnel and other constraints. The WAEC head of administration, Abdul Raman Newland told Politico at their Tower Hill offices in Freetown that the private Oral English exams had therefore been shifted to October because of the “shortage of personnel”. He said the exams were normally determined by the head office in Ghana, which set the date and time for the rest of the sub region. “To be precise the exams will now hold on 3 to 5 October, 2013 by which time all necessary arrangements will have been completed” he said, adding: “Most of our people are preoccupied with other activities like the basic education certificate exams.” He said that they had about 63 centers across the country and 43 of those were in the Western Area which he said needed 43 staff to cover. Newland, however, assured that the timetable for all other papers remained the same and urged candidates to heed the advice and stick to plan. He said all papers and cassettes for the Oral English limb of the exams were in town. One candidate, Mohamed Kamara who travelled from Freetown to his centre in Lungi, expressed disappointment and frustrated. He said they were only told about the cancellation on the morning of the exam. “I had to travel overnight with other pupils to sleep in Lung in order not to be late for the exams” he lamented. (C) Politico 27/08/13 © Politico 27/08/13
