Seven individuals, including two headteachers, two teachers, a senior examination supervisor and invigilators, have been granted police enquiry bail after being arrested over alleged examination malpractice during the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) at the Kyebi Amanfrom Basic School examination centre in the Abuakwa South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
The suspects were arrested by the Kibi Divisional Police Command following an operation involving officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
According to sources, WAEC officials on an unannounced monitoring exercise at various examination centres allegedly caught the senior examination supervisor and invigilators taking photographs of examination question papers with their mobile phones.
The officials reportedly apprehended the suspects on the spot and handed them over to the Kyebi Police for investigations.
Sources at the divisional police command said that preliminary investigations and checks on the suspects’ mobile phones allegedly revealed that the examination questions were being forwarded to headteachers, who then worked with teachers to solve them before the answers were allegedly relayed back to candidates in the examination hall through the supervisor and invigilators.
Police investigations subsequently led to the arrest of the headteacher and a teacher of Kyebi Odumase Presby School, as well as the headteacher and a teacher of Okanta Presby Basic School.
The senior examination supervisor and invigilators arrested on Tuesday are said to have assisted police in identifying and apprehending the other suspects.
Teacher union representatives who later visited the divisional police command reportedly secured police enquiry bail for the seven suspects after arguing that they were not flight risks and would cooperate fully with ongoing investigations.
As part of the bail conditions, police confiscated the mobile phones of all the suspects and directed them to report to the police station daily while investigations continue.
