Mass Failure: 70% of students fail Nov/Dec WAEC exam

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the November/December 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates with 72,522 (29.37 per cent) of the total number of candidates obtaining credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

Announcing the results in Lagos on Thursday, the Head of the Nigeria National Office (HNO) of the council, Mr. Charles Eguridu, said when compared with the November/December 2013 WASSCE (Private), there was a marked increase in candidates’ performance this year.

The record showed that last year’s mark was 26.97 per cent.

He said a total of 246,853 candidates (excluding absentees), consisting of 132,521 male and 114,332 female candidates sat for the examination.

Out of the total number of candidates, he said 241,161 candidates, representing 97.69 per cent had their results fully released, while 5,691 candidates, representing 2.31 per cent had a few of their subjects still being processed due to some errors mainly traceable to the candidates and cyber cafes 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.”

According to him, of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination, 75,313 candidates (30.50 per cent) obtained six credits and above; 110,346 candidates (44.70 per cent) obtained five credits and above; 145,036 candidates (58.75 per cent) obtained credits and above in four subjects; 177,177 candidates (71.77 per cent) obtained credits and above in three subjects; while 205,090 candidates (83.08 per cent) obtained credits and above in two subjects.

Eguridu stated that the results of 28,817 candidates (11.67 per cent) are currently withheld in connection with various cases of examination malpractice.

He also announced that a total of 48 blind candidates registered for and sat for the examination, from which four candidates (8.33 per cent) obtained credits in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

He said candidates would be able to check the details of their performance on the council’s website, www.waecdirect.org within 48 hours after the announcement.
The HNO, who regretted the poor performance among Nigerian students in external examinations, said the problem is that most schools fail to cover the syllabus, but only teach students to pass examinations.

Credit: Uchechukwu Nnaike/ThisDay