By Prince J. Musa in Kenema
Some teachers who serve as examiners for the West African Examination Council (WEAC) have threatened to boycott the conduct of upcoming national exams over failure to pay them past allowances.
The aggrieved teachers were speaking during this year’s National Primary School Examination (NPSE) which was conducted on Monday, August 3. They said WAEC had failed to pay them – both invigilators and supervisors - for services rendered last year for conducting the Junior and Senior Secondary School examination (WASSCE and BECE).
Alhaji A. Sesay served as Centre Manager at Nasir Ahmadiyya Secondary School in Kenema. He told Politico that he and his colleagues who supervised BECE and WASSCE have since been waiting to get their pay, noting that if the allowances due them are not given, they would not take part in the forthcoming BECE and WASSCE scheduled to commence later this August.
He called on the Sierra Leone government to intervene over the issue.
While accusing WAEC of creating problems in the educational sector, Sesay suggested the need for an alternative exams body, saying that teachers have not been treated fairly by WAEC over the years and said that’s part of the problems currently facing the education sector.
Contacted by Politico for his opinion on the teachers outstanding payment claim against WAEC, Kenema District Chairman of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union (SLTU), Morris Moijueh Koroma, corroborated it, saying: “WAEC is in the habit of delaying the payment of workers after they have worked for them’’.
Koroma acknowledged receipt of letters of complaint from teachers against the regional exams regulatory body and said he would forward them to the national office of the teachers union. He also promised to contact WAEC officials on the said matter.
WAEC officials declined to comment when contacted by Politico.
Meanwhile, after long preparation, the NPSE went on as planned. But in Kenema, there were instances of skirmishes caused by the refusal of school authorities for parents to provide the children food during the examination, in line with tradition.
Brima Lamin, who was Centre Manager at the Holy Rosary Secondary School, said they had to call in the police after irate parents scaled the school’s fence in their attempts to take food for their kids. He also complained that the Education Ministry failed to provide them with facemasks to facilitate their supervision of the exams.
Lamin commended the Kenema-based Punjab Distillery for providing the students at his centre with bundles of sachet water.
Deputy Director of Basic Education in Kenema District, John Amara Swarray, said the decision to bar parents from taking food to their children during exams was the Ministry’s.
“The issue of facemasks for invigilators and supervisors is not the responsibility of the ministry as everybody is expected to afford one,” he added.
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