WAEC WITHHOLDS 258,370 RESULTS

•Blames it on Boko Haram, others
…Extends deadline for private candidates

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday released the results of the May/June 2013 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), with 53.23 per cent of the candidates obtaining six credits and above.

However, a sad fate befell 258,370 others, whose results were not released for various reasons, ranging from some errors traceable to the candidates,  cases of examination malpractice and security challenges as a result of Boko Haram insurgency especially in the North-East.

Addressing journalists at the WAEC Office, Yaba, Head of the Nigeria National Office, Mr Charles Eguridu, said there was a significant improvement in performance, but he failed to give details of those that obtained credits in English Language and Mathematics, which constitute core subjects for admissions into the university.

But Eguridu explained that out of 1,689,188 candidates who sat the examination, 889,636, representing 53.23 per cent had six credits and above. Also, 1,074,065 candidates or 64.26 per cent obtained five credits and above.

Asked about details of candidates that obtained credits in English Language and Mathematics, the WAEC boss said the council was unable to provide the statistics because many students in the North- East have partial results, due to the security challenges that resulted to the loss of scripts and killing of three personnel of the council on exam duty.

Although he blamed the inconclusive results on insecurity in some zones of the country, there were speculations that the council may have withheld the information to save the nation further embarrassment of mass failure as widely reported.

Aside the embarrassment such poor results had caused, WAEC also came under fire from stakeholders and government officials, who repeatedly questioned the tools of assessment used by the council.

While explaining the pending results, Eguridu said 145,505 were being processed due to some errors, mainly traceable to the candidates and schools in the course of registration or writing the examination.

“Such errors are being corrected by the council to enable the affected candidates get their results fully processed and released subsequently,” he promised.

Aside these ones, he said the results of 112,865 candidates, about 6.7 per cent, were withheld for various cases of examination malpractices. He said the cases were being investigated and the reports of findings would be presented to the Nigerian Examination Committee (NEC) for consideration.

“In addition, 1,225,591 candidates, representing 73.33 per cent obtained credits and above in four subjects, while 1,353,273 candidates or 80.97per cent obtained credit and above in three subjects. A total of 1,465,581 candidates (87.69%) obtained credit and above in two subjects,” he said.

Eguridu said 2,176 cases of multiple entries were also discovered during the processing of the results and would be subsequently cancelled in line with the WAEC’s regulation.

For the benefits of students that had poor results, the WAEC boss said the closing date for the November/December 2013 WASSCE (private), earlier fixed for tomorrow, August 9, has been extended to August 20, to allow interested candidates the opportunity of registering for the examination.

Source: Sun