39.82% WASSCE candidates obtain 5 credits including English, Maths

By Gabriel Dike

Only 39.82 per cent out of the 61,509 that sat for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates obtained five credits, which include English Language and Mathematics.
Head of Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr. Patrick Areghan, who announced the release of results for private candidates 2020 second series, said 66,375 candidates registered for the examination but that 61,509 sat for it.
Areghan disclosed that registration for the May/June 2021 WASSCE has started and explained that the exercise is starting late because of the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted academic calendar of schools nationwide.
Areghan said the number of candidates that wrote the examination represented a 31.63 per cent decline when compared with the 2019 entry figure.
He said the examination was conducted in 540 centres spread across the nooks and crannies of the country, adding ‘’the drop in the entry figure could be attributed to the negative impact of COVID –19 pandemic.’’
He said of the 61,509 candidates that sat the examination, 30,507 were males while 31,002 were females.
‘’Let me say that the number of candidates that had five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, may not necessarily be a basis for judging the level of performance in this examination. This is because the examination is more or less a remedial one. Some candidates may just need only one or two papers, other than English Language and /or Mathematics, to remedy their admission deficiencies.”
Areghan said out of the number of candidates that sat the examination, 61,111 candidates, representing 99.35 per cent have their results fully processed and released, while 398 candidates, representing 0.65 per cent have a few of their subjects still being processed due to some errors on the part of the candidates.
The HNO explained that efforts were being made to speedily complete the processing to enable the affected candidates get their results fully processed and released.

The WAEC boss explained that 31,751 candidates representing 51.62 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects (with or without English Language and/or Mathematics; out of which 15,376 were males and 16,375 were females, representing 48.43 per cent and 51.57 per cent respectively.
According to him, 24, 491 candidates representing 39.82 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects including English Language and Mathematics.
He said the percentage of candidates in this category in the WASSCE for private candidates, 2018 and 2019, that is, those who obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, were 35.99 percent and 35.10 percent respectively. Thus, there is a marginal increase of 4.72 percent in performance in this regard.