The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) on Monday released the results of the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), for school candidates.
A total of 1,613,733 candidates sat for the examination, out of which 1,287,920 representing 79.81 percent obtained credits and above in at least five mandatory subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, which is a marginal increase from that of 76.36 percent of last year.
Meanwhile, candidates will have the opportunity for the first time in the history of WAEC to from 12 hours from now access their results online and also download the digital copies of their certificates on the council’s website while the same will be sent to their schools later.
Furthermore, no fewer than eight states including Zamfara and Niger out of the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory which are yet to pay for their candidates’ examination fees in full would have their candidates’ results withheld until they pay the money in full and likewise, a total of 262,803. candidates representing 16. 29 percent of the total number of candidates, who sat the exam are being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice, and their cases are being investigated to determine if to eventually release or cancel.
This is 6.54 percent lower than the 22.83 percent recorded in the same examination last year.
Patrick Areghan, Head of the National Office of WAEC Nigeria, announced the release of the results and gave the statistics at a news conference held at the headquarters of the organisation in Yaba.
According to Areghan the cost of conducting its both school-based and examinations for private candidates has gone up astronomically particularly due to rising inflation occasioned by fuel subsidy removal and therefore would ensure to get its money paid in full by the indebted state governments before releasing their candidates results.
The HNO also decried the fluctuation in performance of candidates in the examination, adding that he is particularly concerned about the high cases of malpractice in the examination, blaming the development over many reasons.
“Many students no longer prepare well for exams as they rely on the so-called “Expo” which is actually non-existent and also for activities of the “rogue website operators” and some social media platform owners, who post question papers online immediately after the commencement of subject papers and the use of mobile phones in the exam halls in spite of the ban placed on the device,” he said.
Areghan however, promised that WAEC would continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice and perpetrators including schools, and school administrators, invigilators and supervisors until the system is rid of sharp practices.
Commenting on the insecurity situation in the country particularly in the North West and some eastern states where the sit-at-home order, the head of Nigeria’s office of Waec disclosed that officials of the examination body were attacked at Okigwe, an incident which took a toll on the organisation during the conduct of the examination, stressed that the council was able to get the support of state government and security agencies to help out.
While disclosing that his tenure as HNO would end in October, Areghan also noted that results of all candidates with special needs including visually (109) and hearing impaired (386), physically challenged (34) and 33 others had been released with that of others.
He, however, said candidates could start checking their results within the next 12 hours on the council’s website, given at www.waecdirect.org and also access their digital certificates on www.waec.org, using their Smart Identity Card which they used during the exam.
