The West African Examinations Council says it will stop amending the date of birth and other entries on the certificate of candidates from January 1, 2017.

The council, therefore, advised candidates to take advantage of the opportunity to review their entries while registering for the West African Senior Secondary School Examination on the council’s portal or obtain affidavits from the courts of law.

In a statement on Thursday, the council’s Public Affairs Officer in Nigeria, Mr. Demianus Ojijeogu, said the development was part of measures to curb examination malpractice.

He added that all requests for amendment of any information on bio-data could only be considered during and after registration.

“We have observed with chagrin the volume of requests for amendments by candidates as well as the fact that it could be an opening for examination malpractice hence the need to stop the ugly trend. Moreover, where a candidate detects any error in his/her date of birth after the certificate has been printed, he/she will be advised to obtain an affidavit from a court of law as a support to the certificate.

“The council has included in its registration portal, a secondary opportunity for candidates to confirm the correctness of all their entries in the date of birth box. In addition, all requests received prior to the above-stated effective date will be treated on their merit,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has urged school owners to prepare their pupils ahead of external examinations to reduce the incidence of malpractice and the attendant sanctions.

The council sanctioned no fewer than 30 secondary schools in the state over their alleged involvement in examination malpractice during the 2015 May/June WASSCE.

Speaking at the Living Stone College, Ogba, during a tour of schools in the on-going WASSCE, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mrs. Olabisi Ariyo, said the state government had sent out officials to pay unscheduled visits to schools during the examination.

She added that the move was to reduce examination malpractice to the barest minimum.

“I urge all school owners to maintain a good standard of education by grooming their pupils properly before the examination rather than resort to helping them to cheat. Quality education that will ingrain in the leaders of tomorrow, the virtues of hard-work, self-confidence, truthfulness is the desire of the state government,” she said.

Ariyo also promised that the state government would support all initiatives to prevent a recurrence of the last year ugly incidence.