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By Gabriel Dike
The Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), in November, will decide the fate of 365,564 school candidates whose May/June 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results were withheld by the council for alleged fraud.
The council withheld the results of the candidates for alleged examination malpractice during the May/June 2022 WASSCE.
The Education Report gathered also that five out of 10 states indebted to WAEC and whose sponsored candidates’ results were not released have settled the examination fees and their candidates’ results have been released.
WAEC head of the Nigerian national office (HNO), Mr. Patrick Areghan, while releasing the results, said the results of 365,564 candidates, representing 22.83 per cent of those that sat for the examination, were withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.
Areghan said the figure was 11.74 per cent higher than the 10.9 per cent recorded in the WASSCE for school candidates in 2021, stating, “reasons for this are not far-fetched. Candidates are no longer ready to learn. Preparations for examinations are poor.”
He said, “The council will continue to sanction cases of examination malpractice. Schools, supervisors, teachers and candidates perpetrating this evil are not helping the educational system.”
Areghan told The Education Report that the fate of 365,564 candidates whose results were withheld “will be made known in the first week of November, after the appropriate committee would have sat over the case.”
The HNO also disclosed that 172,842 sponsored candidates in 10 states indebted to the council were affected by the non-release of their results.
However, he confirmed that five states have paid the examination fee and results of their sponsored candidates have been released.
The WAEC boss had earlier stated that the results of candidates sponsored by states indebted to the council will not be released until they pay up, adding, “we appeal to them to do so to enable the affected schools/candidates access their results.”
On some pending results, Areghan said out of 163, 418 candidates involved, the council has released 72, 102 while others are being processed.
Recalled that HNO revealed that 163,418 candidates, representing 10.21% of 1.6million candidates have a few of their subjects’ still being processed due to some issues.
He then said explained that efforts are being made to speedily complete the processing to enable the affected candidates get their results fully processed and released within one week.
According to him, coordination of examiners and marking of 1.6million candidates’ answer scripts took place from June 11 to July 29, 2022 at 89 marking venues, comprising 85 traditional and four e-marking venues throughout the country.
The HNO said 79,229 examiners, comprising 77,173 traditional examiners and 2,056 e-examiners, participated in the coordination and marking exercise.
He said 1,601,047 candidates sat the examination in 20,222 schools and that the examination was also administered to candidates in some schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian, curriculum for Senior Secondary School is being used.
