The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has ended a two-day orientation session at the Holy Trinity Parish hall in Kenema for about 1500 candidates on the promotion of examination ethnics.
The head of WAEC in Sierra Leone, Mohamed Sheriff Sarpateh, said the orientation was a means of addressing the high level of malpractices in public examinations.
He said the violations of examination rules by candidates had forced the council to cancel over 130 results in Sierra Leone for the WASSCE, and nearly 100 for BECE between 2005 and 2007.
Mr Sarpateh however singled out Kenema as having the highest level of examination malpractices and encouraged the pupils to work very hard to avoid embarrassment.
The deputy director of Education East (DDE), John Swaray, told pupils that government was very disappointed with the high rate of failure at public examinations despite huge spending on exam fees.
He called on the pupils to take their school work seriously so that they would write their examinations with much ease and satisfaction.
The chairman of the occasion, Sulaiman Bangura who is also the head of the Social Science Department at the Holy Trinity Secondary School, noted that WAEC laid much emphasis on academic prowess, adding that such intention could only be achieved if examinations were conducted in genuine ways.