WAEC speaks on reviewing examiners’, checkers’ pay

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has reacted to calls that it reviewed how much it pays examiners, checkers and other adhoc staff engaged during the conduct of its examinations.

WAEC Nigeria Head of National Office, Mr Olu Adenipekun said the Council could not equate their services in monetary value, considering their contributions to nation building.

“It is something that is quite clear to us that teachers who serve as examiners to us need to be given enhanced remuneration.

“But let me state it clearly here that the operations of WAEC are largely based and dependent on the teachers.

“For instance, the items which are the raw questions are developed by the teachers, the questions that are so developed are moderated by the same teachers. And when these questions are so moderated, the conduct of the examinations themselves are handled by the teachers and then the standard fixing is also done by the teachers.

“So one will see that as a council, we only provide the enabling environment to ensure that the procedures are followed rigidly, as well as provide the necessary leadership in the area of bringing to the fore, new and positive developments,’’ he said.

“You know, once you share knowledge and you see that knowledge translates to human development, it gives one an unquantifiable sense of joy and self fulfilment that transcends monetary gains.

“We, therefore, acknowledge their contributions to national development and the need to continue to encourage them, which we have been doing, through the continuous improvement of the remuneration of our examiners.

“But also, let me state clearly and this is a fact that the teachers are not in the employ of the council full time.

“They only work for us on part-time basis for a period of time, basically during the marking of examination scripts.

“During this period, we normally inform both the Federal and state govenments, just to let them know that we will engage the teachers for a period of time.

“WAEC does not charge economy fees. What we charge for the examination is strictly limited. It is never given a free hand to charge economy fees because education at the secondary level among the five member nations of council is considered as a social service.

“So, the same way we now plead with our ad hoc staff, supervisors, examiners, checkers, by putting our cards on the table for them to see that what we are all doing is contributing to the development of our dear country,’’ he said.

Adenipekun, however, assured the public that the Council would continue to strive to find means of continually reviewing upward, the stipends being paid the examiners.

In a related development, EduCeleb.com earlier reported that the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) threatened to boycott the ongoing marking of the 2019 Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) for School Candidates over the alleged poor treatment of its members who are secondary school teachers.