It is another torrent of poor results in this year’s West African Senior Schools Certificate Examination, WASSCE, November/December 2013, pr...
It is another torrent of poor results in this year’s West African Senior Schools Certificate Examination, WASSCE, November/December 2013, private examination, as only 86, 612, representing 29.17 percent of candidates that sat for the exams were able to obtain credit in five subjects and above including English language and Mathematics.
Announcing the results to newsmen in Lagos yesterday, the Head of the Nigeria National Office of the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, Mr. Charles Eguridu, said the result marked a decline in candidates’ performance when compared to similar results held in the past two years.
Eguridu said 296, 827 candidates sat for the exams out of which 288,394 candidates, representing 97.26 percent, have their results fully released, while 8,433 candidates, representing 2.74 percent have a few of their results still being processed due to some errors mainly traceable to the candidates in the course of registration or writing the examination.
In 2011, WASSCE candidates that obtained credits in five subjects and above including English and Mathematics were 139,827 representing 36.07 percent of the candidates, while in 2012, the number of candidates that secured English and Mathematics with other three subjects and above were 150,615 representing 37.97 percent of the candidates.
On what may be responsible for the mass failure, Egeridu said that WAEC is not responsible for the poor performance in the exams, stressing that, “We are an assessment body and not responsible for the quality of learning and teaching in the classroom.
“It might be that there has not been proper learning from the students or maybe there has not also been proper teaching on the part of the teachers,” he said.
Eguridu noted that a total of 82 blind candidates registered for and sat for the examination, disclosing that 17 candidates, representing 20.73 percent obtained credits in five subjects including English Language, stating that blind candidates don’t take Mathematics and Science practicals in the WASSCE.
While disclosing that 38, 260 candidates’ results, representing 12.86 percent, are being withheld in connection with various cases of exam malpractices, he noted that such cases are being investigated and the reports of investigation will be presented to the Nigerian Examinations Committee, NEC, of the Council for consideration.
Eguridu also highlighted that from May/June 2014 WASSCE, the examination body would be deploying cutting-edge technology in the conduct of its examinations, by using contactless Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, Smart Card, which would guarantee accurate identification, automated attendance register, instant malpractice report and effective post examination management.
On the statistics of students in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria, especially states affected by the activities of the Boko Haram sect, Eguridu said examinations were conducted in pockets of locations in the area with detailed security, stating, however, that it would be unfair to reel out statistics of performance in the zone owing to the population of candidates, “I don’t want to abuse statistics,” he said.
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