An Educational Director with the Mfantseman Municipal Education Directorate has justified the action by an invigilator that led to a BECE candidate defecating on herself in the exam hall.
A female BECE candidate was forced to defecate on herself after an invigilator denied her from going to the restroom to attend to nature’s call while taking her exam at the Mankessim Senior High School examination centre in the Central region.
According to a report by Starr News, the incident occurred after several pleas by the student to use the washroom were turned down by the invigilator who insisted she stay in the hall to complete her paper.
The report adds that the student had been feeling unwell before the exam and was on medication. Reports say some of her teachers were aware of the student’s condition.
Despite pleas by some of the teachers, the invigilator ignored them and insisted that the student stays to complete her exam leading to her defecating on herself in the exam hall.
The student was forced to write the exam with faeces on herself until some angry teachers intervened. She was hurried to the girl’s dormitory to change her uniform after some of her colleagues went to her house to bring new clothes.
But commenting on the issue in an interview with Yaw Boagyan, Mfantseman Municipal Education Director, Mr. Daniel Cobbod said though the incident was regrettable, the said invigilator was simply applying examination rules as spelt out by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
According to him, the WAEC rules allow Candidates to go out of the Examination room only 30 minutes after an examination has started.
“Students in the examination room can go out only after 30 minutes of the start of the examination.
Most students engage in sending foreign materials to the Examination room and the invigilator suspected the victim will be indulging in malpractice hence denied her the chance of going out.”
Mr. Daniel Cobbod disclosed that the invigilators and the Examination coordinators were later informed that the victim was genuinely not feeling well and they feel sorry about the incident.
He said a delegation from the Guidance and Counselling Unit of the Education Directorate will be visiting the girl to counsel her.
The Education Director added that he has directed the Invigilator to go and apologize to the victim and her parents over the issue.
He said a letter will formally be written to WAEC about the incident.
