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.
“Such cases are being investigated and the reports of
the investigations will be presented to the Nigeria
Examination Committee (NEC) of the council for
consideration. The committee’s decisions will be
communicated to the affected candidates in due course.”
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.