A couple of Abia State nursing students claimed that they were unfairly disqualified by the organizers from taking part in the rescheduled Preliminary Test Session (PTS) exams due to their purported presentation of forged WAEC results.
According to Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo, the State’s Commissioner for Health, only candidates whose O’Level results had been authenticated and certified were eligible to sit for the exam, which started on Monday.
The fresh examination, which was held at a popular CBT centre in Umuahia, was nearly disrupted when uniform-wearing nursing students tried to stop the exercise while protesting their exclusion from writing the test.
This time around, the complainants included some of the 75 “successful” students whose results were cancelled, especially those from Amachara School of Nursing.
According to some of the students, they were not allowed to take part in the examinations by the organizers who claimed the WAEC results they presented were not verified to be authentic.
However, the students insisted that their results were authentic, while others said that the message informing them to come with their original WAEC results came a few hours before the re-sit examination.
Apart from these, some of the nursing students alleged that they submitted their O’Level results even before being offered preliminary admissions to study nursing.
In response, however, Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo, the Abia State Commissioner for Health, clarified that certain measures had been put in place to guarantee that the entire process was carried out in an open and honest manner.
The Commissioner said a verification process was installed to ensure that only those whose WAEC results were verified to be authentic were allowed to sit for the exercise.
She noted that principals of the schools were urged to ensure that their students came with their original WAEC results for screening, pointing out that those whose results were discovered to be fake were screened out.
In order to prevent allegations of results manipulation, Okoronkwo said that a transparent procedure had been implemented, whereby students’ test results would be made public shortly after they were taken. She also revealed that highly successful students would sign their test results before departing the center.
The exams will run until Thursday, according to the Abia State Ministry of Health.
