CHILD'S RIGHTS, WAEC IN ROW

Page 1 Lead
15-09-09


THE publication of names and pictures of students who are alleged to have engaged in examination malpractices has caused the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to be pitted against some groups in the country who are concerned with child rights issues.
In separate interactions with the Daily Graphic, Child Rights International (CRI) and another group which described itself as concerned citizens condemned the publication of the pictures of the students, claiming it violated their rights.
“On Friday, September 4, 2009, we were shocked by the publication in the Daily Graphic of the names and pictures of some students who were reported to have engaged in examination malpractices”, a statement jointly signed by Nana Prempeh Agyemang, Akuba Amponsah and Michael Omari-Wadie on behalf of the concerned citizens, said in a statement to Graphic.
For its part, the CRI said the action of WAEC would not augur well for the development and future of the affected students.
But WAEC says it stands by the practice and would not stop as long as candidates continued to cheat in examination.
The acting Head of Test Administration of WAEC, Mr Kweku Nyamekye-Aidoo, told the Daily Graphic that the previous sanctions such as the cancellation of papers were not working, adding that the WAEC Law (Act 719), which criminalised copying in examination, did not make provision for age.
“Did those who passed the law not know that it was going to affect children?” he asked, and called on all parents, teachers and the society at large to join in the fight against examination malpractice.
The concerned group argued that it was ironic that in the said publication, WAEC stated that the names and not pictures of such candidates should be published.
They said much as they did not condone examination malpractice, they also believed that cancelling the examination papers of the candidates, banning them from taking part in examinations for a year and also publishing their names in the dailies were enough punishment.
“The publication of the pictures must have traumatised the candidates,” they contended.
The concerned citizens said everybody needed a second chance to reform and a first offender should be spared such an ordeal.
“Publishing the picture of a student just because he/she sent a mobile phone into the examination room is like comparing him or her to a convicted rapist, an armed robber or a drug peddler. Even those who commit such crimes have some rights to be protected,” they argued.
The concerned citizens, therefore, appealed to WAEC on behalf of the affected students to render an unqualified apology to the students for the trauma they had put them through.
The Executive Director of Child’s Rights International, Mr Bright Appiah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, deplored the WAEC action and noted that “WAEC needs to review the current practice as it was against the maintenance and rehabilitation of the candidates”.
However, WAEC has defended its decision to publish the names and photographs, saying examination malpractice was getting sophisticated day by day.
One way to stop such practice, the council said, was to adopt measures that were stringent enough to make candidates desist from such a malpractice.
Mr Appiah said he sanctioned the measures of suspending the candidates from writing the examination for a certain periods, withholding of results and cancellation of papers, among other things, since they were enough punishments for the candidates.
“The practice of publishing the names and photographs is not the best,” he emphasised, pointing out that it would undermine the process of their rehabilitation.
Mr Appiah said Article 28, Section 1 (b) of the 1992 Constitution talked about children and persons receiving protection against exposure to physical and moral hazards.
In addition, he said, under the Welfare Principle of the Children’s Act, the best interest of the child had to be the primary consideration of any court, person, institution or body in any matter concerning the child.
Aside that, he said, Article 29 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child indicated that state parties should take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of the child victim, among other things.
WAEC had over the last couple of days published the names and photographs of candidates said to have cheated in some of its examinations.