WAEC Registrar, Uwadiae Bows Out September 30th, Recounts Achievements

By LOVETH AZODO, Lagos

The Registrar, West African Examination Council (WAEC), Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, has confirmed his retirement from the examination body with effect from September 30th after seven years of service in the said position.

Uwadiae confirmed this to Newsmen, Wednesday at the council’s international office in Lagos, from the Council’s Headquarters, Ghana, through the council’s  tele-conferencing facility.

The outgoing Registrar who succeeded Alhaja (Mrs.) Mulikat Bello as the 12^th Registrar to Council on Monday, October 1, 2012 for a five-year tenure was later granted a two-year extension of contract by the Council, which ends on Monday, September 30, 2019.

Uwadiae’s Profile shows that he started his career in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) on November 1, 1985, and served the Council in various positions of trust and responsibility as he ascended the ladder, he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Registrar in 2003.

He was later elevated to the headship of the Council’s Research Division and Headquarters Office, Lagos in 2005.  Subsequently, in 2008 he was appointed the Head of Nigeria National Office of the Council, a position he held for over four years.

During his valedictory interaction with Newsmen, he highlighted some of the major activities and development projects by the Council during his tenure he stated “we boldly implemented some difficult initiatives, which saw to the completion of the 15-year-old Headquarters Office Complex project”

“After five years of piloting, the Secretariat successfully persuaded the Government of Liberia to adopt WASSCE fully with effect from 2018, thereby phasing out the Liberia Senior High School Certificate Examination (LSHSCE)” he said.

On exam malpractice Uwadiae mentioned that the secretariat paid the deserved attention to the issue of examination leakage and resolved to settle for nothing short of total eradication of the nuisance “We pursued a status of self-reliance in printing services which could guarantee our set target of 100% in-house printing of question papers.

“With the use of technology, we built tighter security around our examination materials and conduct, as various gadgets and software were deployed for identification of candidates, capturing of data and detection of irregularities at examination centres. Constrained papers were also introduced to stifle cheating at the examinations”

”We successfully reduced the period for the processing of the results of WASSCE for School Candidates from an average of 84 days in the past to barely 45 days, and the compression is still ongoing”’ he stated.