By Gabriel Dike
Results of the May/June 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) written by 1.8 million candidates have been released, with 72 percent of the candidates obtaining five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
The Head of the Nigeria National Office (HNO) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Dr. Amos Dangut, said 215,267 results were being withheld for alleged fraud.
He disclosed that results of the states’ sponsored candidates would not be released because of non-payment of the examination fees, and appealed to the governors to do the needful.
The HNO, however, confirmed that the threat by the IPOB and strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatened the conduct of the examination. He appreciated the efforts of stakeholders, who intervened to ensure that the South East students wrote the exams.
Giving a breakdown of students’ performance, Dr. Dangut said out of 1,814,736 that registered, 1,805,216 candidates sat the exam, stating that the examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary schools are used.
According to him, 109,115 candidates with varying degrees of special needs registered for the examination, 145 were visually impaired, 473 had impaired hearing; 44 were spastic cum mentally challenged, and 38 were physically challenged. Their results have been processed and being released along with those of other candidates.
Dangut added that 1,685,889 candidates, representing 93.39 percent, have their results fully processed and released, while 119,327 candidates, representing 6.61 percent, have one or more of their subjects still being processed due to some issues being resolved.
The HNO said efforts were, however, being made to speedily complete the process and release the affected candidates’ results within a couple of days.
“The analysis of statistics of candidates’ performance in the exam shows that out of 1,805,216 candidates that sat for the exam, 1,332,089 candidates, representing 73.79 percent, obtained credit passes and above in at least five subjects (i.e. with or without English Language and/ or Mathematics); 1,301,941 candidates, representing 72.12 percent, obtained credit passes and above in at least five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
“A comparison of the percentage of candidates in this category in WASSCE for school 2023 and 2024, reveal that in this year’s (2024) WASSCE, there is 7.69 percent decrease in performance; that is, those who obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, was 79.81 percent,’’ he noted.
He further disclosed that results of 215,267 candidates, representing 11.92 percent of the candidates that sat for the examination, were being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractices. “This is 4.37 percent lower than the 16.29 percent recorded in the WASSCE for school candidates in 2023,” he said.
Dangut expressed concern about the increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall, in spite of the existing ban, organised cheating in some schools, and other nagging issues.
“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. The committee’s decisions will be communicated to the affected candidates through their various schools in due course. Candidates affected by these decisions can now call for redress of their malpractice cases if they so wish via https://waecinternational.org/complaints.”
The WAEC boss observed that the council would continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractices as schools, supervisors, teachers and candidates perpetrating the evils are not helping the educational system.
“As WASSCE for school candidates 2024 results are being uploaded on the results website, candidates should, after checking the result online, apply for their digital certificate, which will be released 48 hours thereafter.”
Dangut restated that the results of candidates, who are sponsored by states indebted to the council, would not be released now until payment is made, and appealed to the governors to do so to enable the affected schools/candidates access their results.
The WAEC HNO advised candidates, who have fulfilled their financial obligations to the council to access their results on the council’s results website: www.waecdirect.org, within the next 12 hours.
He also said the “Sit-at-home” order by the IPOB and the industrial action embarked upon by the NLC, coincided with the days when major papers were written.
“These posed serious threats that could have deprived Nigerian candidates the privilege of sitting for the papers with their counterparts in other member countries. I am exceedingly glad that the Nigerian populace saw reason to allow candidates to sit for all the papers,’’ Dangut added.
He revealed that some supervisors indicted during the exam have been reported to their state ministries of education for sanction.