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Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala has issued one of his strongest warnings yet over the state of examination integrity in Sierra Leone, declaring that “we are in big trouble as a country” if widespread examination malpractice is not urgently addressed.
Kaifala made the warning on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, during the Government’s Special Civic Town Hall Meeting held at the Miatta Civic Conference Centre in Freetown.
The ACC Commissioner described examination malpractice as a serious threat to the country’s education system, saying the problem has grown from isolated acts of cheating into an organised practice involving multiple actors.
He said the situation is particularly concerning because some of the alleged participants are individuals entrusted with protecting the integrity of the education and examination system.
According to Kaifala, the problem involves a combination of demand and supply.
He explained that some parents, driven by the desire to secure educational qualifications and future opportunities for their children, create demand for examination malpractice, while individuals within and around the education and examination system allegedly provide the means to facilitate it.
“There is a demand and there is a supply,” Kaifala said, describing parents seeking academic success for their children as part of the demand, while teachers, school authorities, examination malpractice networks and some examination administrators allegedly contribute to the supply.
He said the situation has become so widespread that the Commission has observed similar patterns in different parts of the country.
Kaifala recalled that the ACC’s investigations uncovered serious malpractice as far back as 2018, including an alleged incident in which students were found taking examinations at night at a location along Abadin Road.
He said subsequent investigations revealed increasingly sophisticated methods of facilitating malpractice, including the movement of examination materials and alleged coordination between actors inside and outside examination centres.
The Commissioner also highlighted the Commission’s recent monitoring activities in Kenema, where 107 mobile phones were reportedly recovered from candidates during a random sampling exercise.
He said the Commission also observed candidates allegedly writing answers on blackboards and detected suspected coordination involving teachers, security personnel and parents.
For Kaifala, the situation represents a direct assault on the credibility of education in Sierra Leone.
He rejected the argument that poor remuneration or other challenges facing teachers should be used to justify examination malpractice.
“If you are called to do it, you either do it or you don’t. And if you cannot, you leave. But you cannot be responsible for doing that job and be substantially responsible for undermining it,” he stated.
Kaifala said the ACC is approaching the matter primarily from a law-enforcement perspective and does not intend to negotiate the basic principle of examination integrity.
He called for a cross-sector response, urging government institutions, schools, parents, examination administrators, security agencies and other stakeholders to pool resources and strengthen measures to prevent and prosecute examination malpractice.
He warned that allowing the situation to continue could produce graduates whose qualifications do not accurately reflect their abilities, thereby weakening the country’s workforce and undermining public confidence in its education system.
The Commissioner concluded with a call for collective responsibility, stressing that the integrity of Sierra Leone’s examinations must be protected at every level.
“We all need to work together, cross-sector purposes, pull resources together, focus on ensuring that the integrity of exams are maintained and protected at all levels.”
