Head of National Office (HNO) of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), Olu Adenipekun, has announced that the council would begin conducting THE Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates twice a year, starting from next year.
Adenipekun, who spoke when he announced the results of the May/June 2017 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Lagos today, Monday, said that the decision to conduct two separate examinations for private candidates yearly was taken at 65th Annual Council Meeting of WAEC member countries in Abuja in March.
“One of the major highlights of the outcomes of the meeting was the approval granted to member countries to conduct the WASSCE for private candidates, twice in a year. I am happy to inform you that the Nigeria National Office of the Council has concluded arrangements to commence the conduct of the additional diet of the WASSCE for private candidates from January/February, 2018.”
Announcing the results, the WAEC officials said that 59.22 per cent of the 1,559,192 candidates who wrote the May/June 2017 examination made credits in five subjects, including English and Mathematics, adding that the performance of students this year was a significant improvement compared to last year, which was 52.97 per cent and 2015, which was 38.68 per cent.
“There has been a significant improvement and it is our hope that this will continue and not just be a fluke. We hope schools will take advantage of this to prepare students better for the examination.”
“The results of 214,952 candidates, representing 13.79 per cent of the total candidature for the examination are being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice. The cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate committee of the Council in due course for consideration. The committee’s decisions will be communicated to the affected candidates through their schools,” he said.
Adenipekun said WAEC was able to achieve its Project 60 target of releasing the result 60 days after the examination ended thanks to improved ICT facilities and training of its workers. He added that the Council would work towards even earlier releases in future.
“We came up with Project 60, a self-imposed time limit for candidates to wait for release of result after the examination. We are hoping to be able to release the result even faster. We are looking at 45 days next time.” [myad]
