The West Africa Examination Council has said it will not release the 2023 results of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination of candidates sponsored by state governments indebted to the Council.
Speaking on Monday, at a press briefing, while announcing the release of the 2023 WASSCE, Head of Nigeria Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, said that Zamfara, Niger, and six states were indebted to the council.
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He said, “WAEC has continued to grant credit facilities to some very credit-worthy and reliable States who pay the registration fee of their candidates. Unfortunately, some States have been owing large sums of money for years now and have simply refused to pay after the needed services had been rendered by WAEC, thus denying us the needed funds to carry out our activities. States sponsoring candidates for the examination must show commitment, willingness, readiness, and ability to pay or redeem their pledges. We make bold to say that the results of the indebted States will not be released along with others.
“Candidates who have fulfilled their financial obligations to the Council can access their results on the Council’s results website. After accessing their results, candidates can confirm, share and download digital copies of their certificates! Copies of the Result Listing will be sent to schools shortly. I need to restate that the results of candidates sponsored by States indebted to the Council will not be released now until they pay up. We appeal to them to do so to enable the affected schools/candidates to access their results.”
He said that out of the 1,613,733 candidates that sat the examination, 1,361,608 candidates, representing 84.38% obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects (i.e with or without English Language and/ or Mathematics).
He added that 79.81% obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
Areghan said the results of 262,803 candidates, that sat the examination, were being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.
He added the withheld results represented 16.29% of the total 1,613,733 candidates that sat the examination.
He said, “ The reasons for this are not far-fetched. Candidates are no longer ready to study, they lack self-confidence and preparations for examinations are poor. There is over-reliance on the so-called ‘Expo’, which is non-existent. Candidates got frustrated when they got to the examination hall and discovered that all they had celebrated was fake.”
Areghan revealed that the exam spanned seven weeks, from May 8 to June 23, 2023.
