…NGF intervenes, meets council officials

•Only 39% obtained credits in English, Maths

By Gabriel Dike

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) yesterday, released the results of the May/June 2015 West African Senior School Certificates Examination (WASSCE) taken by 1.6million candidates, in which only 39 per cent obtained five credits, including English and Mathematics.

No fewer than 988,878 candidates representing 61 per cent, who wrote the examination, either obtained six, five, four, three or two credits and above without English and Mathematics, and are therefore, not qualified to seek admission into the universities, polytechnic and colleges of education.

The management of the council kept to its threat by withholding the results of candidates in 13 states because the government of the affected states failed to pay for their sponsored candidates in the May/June 2015 WASSCE.

Releasing the results of the May/June 2015 WASSCE, the council’s Head of National Office (HNO), Mr. Charles Eguridu, confirmed marginal improvement in the performance of candidates, adding that it had given defaulting state governments time to settle their bills due to the intervention of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF).

Despite pressure from newsmen, the WAEC management refused to identify the 13 debtor states, saying opposition parties may hijack the issue. He, however, said Imo, Delta and Edo states were not among the 19 states that were initially indebted to it.

The HNO stated that only six states had either fully or partially paid the registration fees of their sponsored candidates after the two weeks ultimatum by the council, while results of the remaining 13 states would only be released when the debts were paid.

His words: “You will recall that when I addressed you on this issue on July 27, 2015, I alerted the nation to the challenges, which the council was facing in Nigeria as a result of this indebtedness, and its adverse effects on our operations. I had stated then that the council might be constrained from releasing the results of government-sponsored candidates of the affected states.

“After my pronouncement, a few of the debtor states responded by paying their debts fully or partially; while a few others made promises, indicating their willingness to pay as soon as they are able to do so. Others have not made any efforts in addressing the matter.

“After reviewing the situation, the council has decided that the results of government-sponsored candidates of indebted states will be released if such states endeavour to produce bank guarantees, so that the council will be assured that the fees will be paid. This decision is in appreciation of the general prevailing economic challenges in the country, and in order not to jeopardize the educational careers of the candidates of the indebted states.’’

He revealed that when the results were uploaded today, those of the 13 states would not be included noting: “I sympathize with you journalists on the pressure from your offices to get the names of the states indebted to the council. If I release the names, opposition parties will take advantage of the issue as a campaign tool.’’

Giving a breakdown of the results, Mr. Eguridu said 616,370 candidates, representing 38.68 per cent obtained credit in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

The HNO, however, stated that there was a marginal improvement in the performance of candidates compared to 2014, which recorded 38.30 per cent (639,760 candidates).

He attributed the improvement to stakeholders, including schools, especially teachers, who doubled their efforts. He predicted that in 2016, the performance of candidates would improve up to 40 per cent.

According to him, the results of 1,498,069 candidates, representing 94.01per cent of the total number of candidates, who sat for the examination, were fully released, while 95,373 candidates, representing 5.99 per cent had a few of their subjects still being processed due to some errors mainly traceable to the candidates and schools in the course of registration or writing the examination.


Source: Sun