‘Gov't WASSCE Fees Payment has increased Candidates Participation’ …WAEC Boss discloses

West African Examination Council (WAEC) Director General, Prof. Dale G. Gbotoe, has disclosed that since the Government of Liberia intervened to pay the West African Senior Schools Certificate Examination (WASSCE) fees across Liberia, it has increased the participation of candidates over the past five years.
The West African Examination Council boss made the assertion when he appeared on the state-owned radio LBS on Monday in Paynesville, outside the Liberian capital.
"We must commend the Government because since it started paying the WASSCE fees for students, candidate participation has increased over the past years. Before the 650 slot we can give each school they never used to cover 50 percent but now it has increased," Prof. Gbotoe asserted. 
It can be recalled during President George Manneh Weah’s first State of the Nation address on Monday, January 29, 2018, he declared the government will pay the WASSCE fees for all 12th graders across Liberia. And since the pronouncement in 2018, to present the Government has remained committed to its promise.
According to President Weah then, ihis administration will absorb the WAEC fees for all 12th graders in both public and private schools.
Meanwhile, the WAEC boss has also said that the Council has withheld over 40,000 candidates results due to collusion in the 2023 WASSCE exam.
Collusion is a secret agreement or cooperation for an illegal or dishonest purpose.
"For example, if one candidate misspells a word or we say bound Liberia and in bounding of Liberia, if one person misspells Atlantic Ocean, all the candidates in that particular testing center will have the same error," Prof. Gbotoe explained.
He further narrated that some of the temporary staff and supervisors that were involved in the said collusion have been apprehended and turned over to the relevant authority and are currently undergoing investigation. 
"And another thing we have decided to do is that, students will not take their exams on their school campuses any longer because some of those people that were temporary staffs that were monitoring the students are Principals and Senior officials of their schools," he said.