"83 per cent of the total number of candidates that took the examination, failed to obtain five credits passes and above in English, Mathematics and three other subjects". Now the standard of education is facing a meltdown.

WAEC releases results, 83% of candidates fail
By Segun Olugbile
Published: Saturday, 27 Sep 2008

The West African Examinations Council on Friday released the result of the May/June West African Senior Secondary Examination.

The Head, National Office, WAEC, Dr. Iyi Uwadiae, who announced this at a media briefing on Friday, said that only 188,442 or 13.76 per cent of the 1,369,142 candidates that sat for the examination obtained five credits passes and above in English, Mathematics and three other subjects.

Uwadiae, while announcing the results, said that a total of 1,369,142 candidates entered for the examination in the country. He said out of this figure, 1,136,387 candidates, representing 83 per cent, had their full results released, while a few subjects sat for by 232,755 candidates, representing 17 per cent, were still being processed.

An analysis of the released results by Saturday Punch showed that 947,945 candidates, about 83 per cent of the total number of candidates that took the examination, failed to obtain five credits passes and above in English, Mathematics and three other subjects. A candidate seeking admission to any Nigerian university, except the University of Lagos, must have a minimum of five credits at a sitting before he or she could be considered for a place. However, to secure admission to UNILAG, a prospective student must have obtained a minimum of six credits at a sitting.He added that this was so because of alleged errors made by the candidates during the process of registration or during the conduct of the examination. Uwadiae assured that the results would be released as soon as the errors were corrected.

Giving a further analysis of the result, Uwadiae said that of the 188,442 candidates who obtained five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, 100,338 or 7.32 per cent were male while 88,104 or 6.43 per cent were female. A further analysis of the results, he said, showed that 91,609 candidates, representing 6.69 per cent, sat for science subjects; 28,898 or 2.11 per cent candidates took social science subjects; while 67,935 or 4.96 per cent did arts subjects. However, the results of 74,956, representing 5.47 per cent of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination, are being investigated based on various reports of their alleged involvement in malpractices during the conduct of the examination.

Uwadiae disclosed that the reports of the malpractices and the exhibits had been compiled for a presentation to the Nigeria Examinations Committee of the council. He said that the council’s decisions would be communicated to the affected candidates through the schools that presented them for the examination as soon as the committee finished its assignment. Uwadiae, who commended the Nigerian Union of Teachers, the federal and state governments for their efforts in ensuring the successful completion of the script marking, advised candidates to check their results on the council’s result-checking website as from Friday.

Answering questions on the leakage of some of the question papers, Uwadiae said all the papers suspected to have been compromised were replaced by the council. He assured all stakeholders, including the candidates who sat for the examination and their parents that no candidate benefited in any way or suffered beyond the inconveniences of the rescheduling of the cancelled papers as a result of the leakage of some question papers.

Who is responsible for this? what is the fate of our future workforce? more questions than answers.
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