The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has called for investigations into the alleged use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated answers by some candidates in the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
WAEC announced that it had withheld the results of candidates from 235 schools for allegedly using AI-generated answers during the 2023 WASSCE.
It further cancelled the subject results of 3,647 candidates for bringing foreign material into the examination halls.
The results of 839 candidates were cancelled for possession of mobile phones.
Speaking on the issue, the President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, raised concerns about the high number of implicated schools.
He asked WAEC to provide more information on how the students could use the AI.
“It sounds strange to me that some of the names I’m hearing are the schools where the students had the opportunity to use AI. And it’s against the rules to allow any student to go into the exam hall with a mobile phone. At what point did the students access the AI information on the mobile phones? Did the students see the question ahead of time for them to be able to get onto AI sites, solve it, memorize it, and come to the exam hall to reproduce it?” he questioned.
“I will need more information to put some value on those accusations. Sometimes, what happens is that one or two students in a centre are identified as compromising the sanctity of the exam. Therefore, everybody collectively is punished. That also ought to be looked at critically because innocent students should not suffer for the ills of a few. The sheer number of withheld results is worrying to me.”
He, therefore, called on the examination body to conduct thorough investigations to ensure innocent students are not unfairly affected.
