The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the result of the first series of its 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) organised for private candidates.
The examination was held between January and February, with a total of 8,348 candidates participating across 262 exam centres nationwide.
The Head of WAEC National Office, Nigeria, Mr Patrick Areghan, while announcing the release of results in a statement, said only 2,003 candidates (representing 23.99%) out of the total 8,348 who sat for the examination obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
In the statement made available to journalists by the head of public affairs department of the organisation, Mrs. Moyosola Adesina, out of this number, only 971 (representing 48.48%) were male candidates, while 1,032(representing 51.52%) were females.”
Areghan said the percentage of candidates who had this similar result in the same diet in 2021 and 2022 were 30.11% and 26.32 per cent respectively, a development that showed a marginal decrease of 2.33 per cent in performance over the three years.
Areghan, however, pointed out that this general result cannot be compared with that of the May/June school-based diet for final year students because candidates in the latter exam are being compelled to sit for either eight or nine subjects, while in this particular exam, candidates are free to sit even for one subject depending on the number of subjects they have a deficiency and need to pass.
“That is why it is not correct or fair to say that the performance in this examination has dwindled when compared with the school-based exam,” he said.
Giving further statistics of the results, Areghan said 413 (representing 4.95%) of the total number of candidates who sat the examination still have their results withheld over allegations of examination malpractice.
He said their cases are being investigated, and the outcome would be communicated to them whether their results would be released or cancelled.
He said 27 candidates with special needs, including visual and hearing impaired and Albinos, also participated in the exam.
He, however, disclosed that candidates who sat for the examination are now free to visit the council’s website www.waecdirect.org to check their results, while they would need to apply for their certificates online, through WAEC Certificate Request Portal (e-Certman) website given as https://certrequest.waec.ng/.
He commended members of staff of WAEC, exam officials, as well as ad-hoc staff who participated in the exercise, saying their contributions were worthwhile.