The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said that 72% of candidates who took this year’s West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) received credits in five disciplines, including English Language and Mathematics.
Dr Josiah Dangut, WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO), spoke to reporters yesterday to announce the publication of the results. He compared the percentage of candidates in this category to those who wrote the same examination last year.
According to the HNO, this year’s results indicated a 7.69% reduction in performance; those who got credit or above in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, were 79.81 per cent last year.He said 73.79 per cent candidates obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects with or without English language and Mathematics.
Dangut stated that the results of 215,267 candidates, or 11.92 per cent of the total number of candidates who took the examination, were withheld due to alleged examination malpractice. According to him, this is 4.37% less than the 16.29% reported previous year.
According to the HNO, 1,814,736 candidates enrolled for the examination among the country’s 25,126 recognised secondary schools, but only 1,805,216 candidates took the exam.
Despite an existing restriction, he raised concern over increasing cell phone usage in examination halls and stated that organised cheating has been recorded in some schools.
“All the cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate committee of the council for consideration and final decisions,” Dangut said.
The HNO said candidates who have fulfilled their financial obligations can access their results on its results website: www.waecdirect.org, within the next 12 hours.
He added that the results of candidates who were sponsored by states indebted to the council would not be released until they settle their indebtedness.
“We appeal to the concerned to do so to enable the affected schools/candidates access their results,” Dangut said.