FAIRNESS AND VALIDITY OF THE WEST AFRICAN SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION IN SIERRA LEONE: A DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS OF POLICY, MEDIA AND EXAMINATION REPORTS

High‑stakes examinations such as the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) play a decisive role in shaping access to tertiary education, employment and social mobility in Sierra Leone. In recent years, public debates about withheld results, examination malpractice and unequal learning conditions have raised fresh questions about how fair and valid WASSCE is perceived to be. This article explores these questions through a qualitative documentary analysis of publicly available policy and curriculum documents, examination regulations and chief examiners’ reports, ministerial press releases and national media coverage relating to WASSCE between 2015 and 2025. Guided by a multi‑dimensional framework that links procedural, distributive, interactional and substantive fairness to perceived validity, the analysis identifies five interrelated themes. The documents portray WASSCE as a highly valued but anxiety‑inducing credential; point to procedural fairness concerns around registration processes, malpractice investigations and withheld results; highlight tensions between curriculum intentions, constrained classroom conditions and demanding examination requirements; and show how limited feedback and restricted participation in standard‑setting and moderation may weaken stakeholders’ sense of voice. At the same time, emerging reforms are framed as attempts to strengthen credibility, security and fairness. Overall, the findings suggest that perceptions of fairness and validity are shaped not only by test scores and technical quality, but also by how rules are applied, communicated and experienced by candidates, schools and communities.