General News of Sunday, 9 April 2006

Source: GNA

Invigilators and supervisors gives WAEC ultimatum

Wa, April 9, GNA - Six months after the Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examinations was held for private candidates, the invigilators and supervisors in the Upper West Region have not been paid their invigilation and travel and transport allowance.

As a result, they have come out with an ultimatum for West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to either pay them within the next ten days or face their wrath. Mr Thomas Kpaamah Kapiri, a leader of the invigilators who stormed the Regional Offices of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in the company of two others contended that WAEC had taken them for a ride for a long time.

He said while other regions had paid their invigilators and supervisors for a very long time, the Upper West Regional Office WAEC was not doing enough to encourage the already aggrieved invigilators. "At least telling us something will calm down nerves, but just to keep quiet like that indicates that they are not worried about our plight.

Mr Kapiri said the invigilators and supervisors who were mostly teachers were about 60 in the region and WAEC, up till now had not even spelt out how much they were to receive for each paper.

Mr Kapiri challenged the leadership of WAEC to expedite action on the payment or give tangible reasons that would not jeopardise their future examinations.

Mr Philip Abrokwa, a senior official of WAEC on the other hand pleaded in an interview with the GNA that they were all worried that they had not received their allowances. He explained that they allowances were sent to Accra immediately after the examinations in November, but de to the large number of supervisors and invigilators the Council had decided to be paying region by region hence the delay.

Mr Abrokwa however gave the assurance that they would be able to address the issue within the ten days ultimatum given them. He pleaded with affected personnel to exercise restrain while they worked out all the allowances due the region. "It has never happened like this before and so we pleaded with them and hope that such mistakes would never be repeated," he said.