53 Anambra students miss WAEC examination over alleged server failure

God’s Own Secondary School, Umuchu, Aguata in Anambra has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari over refusal of the West Africa Examination Council to allow 53 students to complete May/June WAEC registration.

The school called on the president to urgently order WAEC to re-open their server to enable the students to complete registration to avoid 53 of them from missing the 2019 examination.

The petition to the President by the school was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Awka.

The petition authhttps://theeagleonline.com.ng/ored by B. S. Nwankwo (SAN), counsel to the school, stated that the students paid N739, 350 to WAEC for the ongoing WAEC May/June examination.

Nwankwo alleged that WAEC server was able to upload the names and data of only 24 students before the server experienced network challenges and closed 12am March 1, 2019, leaving out 29 other students.

According to the school, 29 other students whose money was part of the N739, 350 paid to WAEC have yet to be uploaded till date and their future is hanging.

The school however, lamented that these innocent students had already missed their first paper (marketing) taken on April 8.
It stated: “The school principal had visited WAEC office at Awka and Lagos about five times for WAEC to resolve the matter all to no avail.”

The school insisted that the students duly paid the actual required registration fee to WAEC before the deadline and appealed to Buhari to intervene.

It noted: “We appeal to Mr President to use his good office to order WAEC to immediately open their server for the 29 students to be duly registered for the ongoing examination which they paid for two months ago.”

E. C. Eze, Chairman, Board of Governors, God’s Own Secondary School Umuchu, Aguata told NAN that the school had been writing WAEC in the past ten years, but had never had such a problem.

Eze said the school had sent petition to the minister of education and the National Assembly adding that if urgent action was taken the students could still write other examinations slated for April 22.

When contacted, Isaac Igwe, the Branch Controller, WAEC, Anambra head office, said he was aware of the problem of God’s Own Secondary School, Umuchu.

Igwe said that the issue was that the school was unable to complete the registration process before the WAEC server was closed at the expiration of the deadline for 2019 May/June registration.

He said: “All that the school tried to explain was that the Cyber cafe contracted to upload the students’ registration data did not complete the process before the deadline.

“We told them that there is very little our office in Anambra can do to help out and had referred them to our Lagos office.”