The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has introduced a new initiative allowing students to retake their West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) papers as early as January and February 2025.
Previously, millions of candidates had to wait for the next private examination session to resit their failed exams.
The newly introduced programme, called WASSCE PC1, provides a quicker way for students to improve their grades and qualify for the next admission cycle.
John Kapi, the head of public affairs at WAEC, while speaking to journalists on JoyNews’ AM Show, explained that the exams would be held from January 24 to February 15, 2025, with registration closing on January 8.
According to Kapi, the exams will be held in regional capitals, and the first edition is expected to have a relatively small number of candidates.
He mentioned that WAEC planned to expedite the release of chief examiners’ reports to help candidates prepare.
Kapi further explained that the reports would provide detailed feedback on students’ mistakes and guide them on improving their study methods and exam strategies.
“We’ve advertised this programme widely through banners, our website, and our results checker platform to ensure that both students and parents are aware,” Kapi added.
Students whose results were cancelled can also participate in the WASSCE PC1 exams, as long as they are not banned due to malpractice.
“For now, the exams will be conducted in regional capitals due to the limited number of candidates. Prospective participants are urged to complete their registration by the 8th of January to take advantage of this opportunity.”
This announcement came amidst challenges faced by WAEC, including the withholding of over 215,000 candidates’ results from the 2024 WASSCE due to allegations of malpractice.
Amos Dangut, WAEC’s head in Nigeria, reported that 11.92 percent of the 1.8 million candidates who took the exam were involved in malpractice.
Despite these challenges, WAEC celebrated some success in the 2024 results, with 72.9 percent of candidates achieving credits in five subjects, including Mathematics and English Language.
However, this marked a 7.6 percent drop in performance compared to 2023.
Dangut noted that the percentage of candidates who met the criteria for credit in the key subjects decreased by 7.6 percent compared to the 2023 WASSCE results.
“This is a 7.6 percent decrease in examination performance compared to last year of 2023 WASSCE. Also, 215,267 results were withheld due to examination malpractice by the candidates. This accounts for 11.92 percent of the total number of candidates who wrote the examination,” Dangut concluded.
