By Uche Amunike
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has released the WAEC Result 2021, showing an unrivaled success rate of 81.7% of the total 1,560,261 candidates that took the examination who made credit pass in five subjects including English and Mathematics.
The Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO), of the council, Patrick Areghan, disclosed this at the WAEC office in Yaba, Lagos while showing how impressive he found the performance of the candidates.
According to him the WAEC result 2021 is the best that has been released so far, in over 10 years.
Hear him:’One Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Eighty Four (1,274,784) candidates, representing 81.7%, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five (5) subjects, including English Language and Mathematics’.
‘Of this number, Six Hundred and Thirty Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty Eight (630,138) i.e. 49.43% were male candidates, while Six Hundred and Forty Four Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty Six (644,646) i.e. 50.57% were female candidates’.
According to him, the percentage of candidates in the WASSCE category for school candidates who scored a minimum of 5 credits including English Language and Mathematics was 65.24% in 2020. This means that an improvement in performance of 16.46% was recorded.
He applauded both the Federal and State governments for the improvement in the performance, stating that it would not be fair for WAEC to take all the credit for such great leaps, apart from its collaborative efforts towards improving the standard of education in Nigeria and the other West African countries.
Areghan, however mentioned some challenges faced by the examination body during the conduct of the examination which included the COVID -19 pandemic, insecurity and the issue of rogue websites which was a major problem.
The examination lasted for seven weeks, having started by August 16 and ended October 8 ,with WAEC result 2021 released November 22.
While it lasted, challenges of insecurity in the South East which includes the IPOB and ESN sit-at-home order, banditry, kidnapping, insurgency in the North and other parts of the country, laced with the continuous effect of the Coronavirus pandemic, made the whole exercise a difficult one.
Areghan explained that the WAEC result 2021 of 170,146 candidates representing 10.9% of the total candidates are presently being withheld as a result of various reported cases of examination malpractice.
He particularly decried the activities of Road website operators and some other social media platforms who post examination questions online as soon as the paper being administered starts. Use of cell phones in the examination hall, not withstanding the existing ban and organized cheating in certain schools are major concerns. He ensured that all cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the assigned Committee for the council for determination in due course.
He also assured that decisions reached by the appropriate Committee will be communicated to the affected candidates to their various schools
