BEN KAIFALA BLAMES EXAM MALPRACTICE ON ‘COLLABORATION’ BETWEEN PARENTS, TEACHERS AND STAFF

By Desmond Isaac Macauley
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala has described examination malpractice in Sierra Leone as a major collaborative scheme involving parents, teachers, administrative staff and members of the security sector.
Speaking on the issue, Kaifala said the ACC’s findings submitted to the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education pointed to a network of people working together to facilitate examination malpractice. He stressed that the problem goes beyond students and requires those enabling the malpractice to be held accountable.
The ACC boss disclosed that a teacher is currently in custody after allegedly receiving examination papers from a WASSCE supervisor for marking. He said the teacher subsequently went from house to house, knocking on parents’ doors and allegedly telling them that he had their children’s NPSE papers and that they needed to pay him before their children could sit the examination again.
Kaifala said he is not a policy maker but a law enforcement agent, arguing that anyone caught engaging in examination malpractice should face accountability. He maintained that concerns over poor remuneration for teachers are not a justification for breaking the law.
He also declined the Ministry’s request for the ACC to monitor examinations, explaining that monitoring examinations is not the Commission’s mandate. According to him, the ACC previously intervened to draw the attention of the appropriate authorities to the problem, and it is now up to those responsible to take action and address the issue on a wider scale.