Head of the Nigeria National Office ,WAEC
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]saac Adenipekun needs no introduction as a Nigerian, He is not a stranger to the struggle for good and quality education . His bonding with West African Examination Council is akin to the umbilical relationship between a child and the mother right from the womb and last all through a lifetime. His antecedents and achievements in West African Examination Council speaks volumes. He is a perfect example of leadership symbolism, the paragon of idealism, the soul of humanity, the heart of warrior, the perfect gentleman. Indeed, some leaders are born, some achieve leadership, some have leadership thrust upon them, while only very few have all three embedded in them. Isaac Adenipekun is a man of immense mettle and a completely detribalized human being with a profound depth of character, whose humility, devoid of discrimination, embraces all and sundry. He soars like an eagle and exudes reverence and integrity. A pragmatic leader full of benevolence; he gives hope to the hopeless, welfare succor to the poor and needy. To everyone who crosses his path, he is a light. He is a friend to the staff , a role model to the young , a helper to many and a visionary man.
He assumed office as the Head of the Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), on Wednesday, December 9, 2015. Until his appointment as Head of National Office, he was the Zonal Coordinator, WAEC Zonal Office, Ibadan. Mr. Adenipekun is a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria (FCAI) and a Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (MNIM). He has also attended several professional and management courses both in Nigeria and overseas. He is a Christian and married with children.
Isaac Adenipekun is the Head of the council’s National Office. He’s been in charge since December 2015. And he is of the opinion that the development of WAEC has been exponential in terms of growth: “When WAEC was established in 1952, it had just one small office in Yaba before they moved into the high rise in 1973 where it is now situated. It was from the high rise building that it began to establish branches across Nigeria. Today WAEC has 12 zonal offices and 18 branch offices in the council. That, if you ask me, is a huge spread. In its early days, WAEC had less than 500 candidates in the whole of Nigeria but today, we are examining 1.6 m candidates. In terms of staffing, WAEC started with staff strength of about 30. Today, WAEC staff is close to 2,800. In the area of deployment of technology, WAEC took the lead as soon as it started deploying machines to do calculations in the early 70s. And from there, they’ve taken the lead in terms of ICT usage”.
Since its establishment, WAEC has become one of the world’s largest assessment agencies with responsibilities for setting and marking a large number of examinations, both locally and internationally. The council examines approximately 2 million candidates across West Africa each year: “In the early years, candidates had to personally come to WAEC to make enquiries and obtain forms. After that candidates had to come to WAEC office or post office to be given the centers where they would write their exams. And when results are finally processed, they had to come to WAEC offices to check their results. But within the last 20 years, there’s been a lot of improvement. In addition to that, WAEC has been organizing seminars, briefings and training for examiners such that those who are teachers in secondary schools can also gain additional knowledge. The supervisors are also trained on how to conduct standardized examinations and in the process knowledge acquired are not meant to be used for WAEC examinations alone because when they get back to their respective schools, they are expected to deploy the knowledge they have gained in conducting better internal exams”.
“All these are some of the effort that WAEC has put into delivering on their mandate to the Nigerian education sector”. Upon assumption of office, Adenipekun’s vision was to ensure that WAEC continues to have examinations that are credible and issue certificates that have integrity. To continually deploys technology for WAEC to remain a cutting edge organization and to remain the examining body to beat.
Having spent 26 years in WAEC in a variety of senior management, Isaac Adenipekun has given his all to assessing young people at the secondary school level and was able to build their lives around that assessment is a huge responsibility.
Mr. Adenipekun has held several positions of accountability in the Council and has distinguished himself as a primus inter pares (a first among equals). For example, he was Head, Meetings and General Services Department, WAEC, Yaba (February 1996-January, 2001); Head, Examinations Security, WAEC Branch Office, Umuahia, Abia State (February 2001-January 2006); Head, Aptitude Tests Administration Section, Test Development Division, Ogba (February 2006-January 2008); Pioneer Officer-in-Charge, WAEC Satellite Office, Ikorodu, Lagos State (February 2008-September 2009); Branch Controller, WAEC Branch Office, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State (October 2009-May 2011; Pioneer Zonal Coordinator, WAEC Zonal Office, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State (June 2011-December 2011); Zonal Coordinator, WAEC Zonal Office, Kaduna (December 2011-May 2015). In his tenure as Head of National office, his aim is to take WAEC to another level by making the body a world class examining body and a reference point for assessment and conduct for public examination in the whole world.
BY: GRASSROOTS PUBLISHERS