More than 70 percent of the candidates who sat for the 2014 November/ December 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), failed to make five credits, Mathematics and English Language inclusive, the exams body announced Thursday.

Scoring five credits with the two subjects is regarded as the pass mark for the exams.

The Head, National Office of the Council, Charles Eguridu, who announced the results Thursday at a news conference in Lagos, said of the total 241,161 candidate who sat for the examinations in 2014, only 72,522 scored five credits with the two key subjects, giving a pass rate of 29.27 percent.

In 2013, out of 298,971 candidates who sat for the exams, a total of 86,612 candidates, representing, 29.17 percent obtained credits in 5 subjects and above including English Language and Mathematics.

The 2014 performance improved dismally upon the 2013 record, at less than one percent.

The examination body said it withheld 28,817 results.

According to Mr. Eguridu, the results were not released because they were connected to examination malpractice.

He said such cases were already being investigated and that the reports of the investigations would be presented to the Nigeria Examination Committee (NEC) of the council for consideration.

Mr. Eguridu said the committee’s decision would be communicated to the affected candidates in due course.

Giving a further breakdown of the results of candidates, he said 132,521 male and 114,332 female candidates sat for the examination.

He noted that of the figure, a total of 241,161 candidates representing 97.69 per cent had their results fully released, while 5,691 others, representing 2.31 per cent had a few of their subjects still being processed, due to some errors.

Mr. Eguridu said that the errors were mainly traceable to the candidates and cyber cafés in the course of registration or writing the examination.

He explained that the errors were already being corrected by the council, to enable the affected candidates get their results.

Mr. Eguridu said that a total of 75,313 candidates, obtained six credits and above, while 110,346 others obtained five credits and above.

According to him, 145,036 candidates representing 58.75 percent obtained credits and above in four subjects, while 177,177 others representing 71.77 percent obtained credits and above in three subjects.

He said that a total of 205,090 candidates obtained credits and above in two subjects.

He said that a total of 48 blind candidates registered and sat for the examination, with four of them obtaining credits in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

Walk-in-Candidates
Mr. Eguridu said that the result, when compared to 2012 and 2013 results, showed a marked increase in candidates’ performance.

He noted that as an organisation that was innovation driven, the council had introduced the “Walk-in-Candidates” registration.

According to him, the platform allows intending candidates who were unable to register during the normal registration period to register and sit for the examination.

Mr. Eguridu noted that the 2014 Nov./Dec. WASSCE recorded a total of 701 `Walk-in-Candidates’ who registered and sat for the examination.

On how the council was able to conduct the examination in some states with security concerns, Mr. Eguridu lauded the joint efforts of the Federal and the affected state governments.

He also commended other security agencies for providing the council with enough security through the conduct of the examination.

“I must say that we faced a lot of challenges, moving our materials and men to such areas. But I think at the end of the day, we equally have to thank God that no casualty was recorded,’’ he said.

Mr. Eguridu, however, urged candidates who sat for the examination to check the details of their performance on the council’s result website, within the next 48 hours.

He said in order to maintain uniformity, guard against malpractice and improve standards, the council had designed and introduced customised, transparent mathematical sets, with an in-built non-programmable scientific calculator.

Mr. Eguridu said the calculator would help in ensuring conformity with the rules and regulations of the examination.

He said the council had continued its quest of improving its service delivery system, particularly through the deployment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Mr. Eguridu noted that during the Nov./Dec. examination, the council deployed biometric technology in the registration of candidates.

He added that the data captured during the registration formed the basis for the identification of candidates and taking of attendance during examination.

(NAN)