Students, Teachers Injured As Examination Hall Collapses During WAEC Exam In Taraba

Several students and teachers have been injured following the collapse of an examination hall during the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Namnai, a town in Taraba State.

WASSCE is a standardised test administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to assess the academic achievement of senior secondary school students in Anglophone West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia.

The incident, which occurred on Wednesday, has sparked outrage and renewed concerns about the deplorable state of public school infrastructure in the state and across Nigeria’s communities.

According to Taraba Reporters, a local media outlet covering the state, the incident occurred as students were seated and actively taking their examination inside the building.

“NAMNAI AGAIN: A classroom building collapsed on students taking their WAEC exams in Namnai, Taraba State. Reports indicate that some students were injured in the incident. The collapse occurred while students were writing their exams, highlighting concerns about the safety and infrastructure of schools in the state,” the platform wrote on Facebook.

A Facebook user, Abubakar Hamidu, who appeared to be privy to the incident, confirmed the scale of the incident.

He wrote: “EXAMINATION HALL COLLAPSED ON STUDENTS WHILE WRITING THEIR WAEC EXAMS IN TARABA STATE. A classroom building collapsed on students taking their WAEC exams in Namnai, Taraba State. Reports indicate that 30 students were injured in the incident. The collapse occurred while students were writing their exams, highlighting concerns about the safety and infrastructure of schools in the state.”

The examination was taken at late hours in several centres in Kwara, Taraba and other northern states in the country.

A resident of Kwara, Idris Yinka, in a post on Wednesday,  said: “They brought the WAEC examination questions around 6:50 p.m. Sharing and distribution of the papers took ten minutes, and the exam started exactly at 7:00 p.m. and ended at 8:25 p.m., according to the two secondary school students I just met at Alore Junction.”

A one-minute, 33-second video clip seen online  shows a chaotic scene, with students struggling to complete their exam in total darkness due to the absence of electricity in the school.

A voice in the background is heard stating that the exam, originally scheduled for 2:00 p.m., did not begin until 6:00 p.m., causing the session to stretch late into the evening. In the footage, a man believed to be the examination supervisor is seen holding a torchlight to assist the candidates in finishing their papers.

A woman’s voice, filled with frustration over the situation, can be heard saying, “They are using torchlight to write WAEC, even during my time of lantern (when lanterns were commonly used in homes), we did not use torchlights to write WAEC.

“It’s not okay. The paper that was supposed to start by 2 pm, they brought the paper by 6 pm.”