Out of the 241,161 candidates who sat for the November/ December 2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), examinations, only 72,522 scored credits in five subjects, including Mathematics and English Language, the head of the National Office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Charles Eguridu, said on Thursday in Lagos.
This, according to him, represents a pass rate of 29.27 percent in the examination with 28,817 withheld results as a result of examination malpractices and other irregularities.
Comparably, 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.
Eguridu said cases of withheld results were being investigated and that the reports of the investigations would be presented to the Nigeria Examination Committee (NEC) of the council for consideration and that the committee’s decision would be communicated to the affected candidates.
According to him, 132,521 male candidates and 114,332 female candidates sat for the 2014 examination and out of this figure, a total of 241,161 candidates representing 97.69 percent had their results fully released, while 5,691 others, representing 2.31 percent had some of their subjects still being processed, due to some errors.
He explained that the errors were mainly traceable to the candidates and cyber cafés in the course of registration or writing the examination and that they were already being corrected by the council.
He further said that a total of 75,313 candidates, obtained six credits and above, while 110,346 others obtained five credits and above. Also, 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 while a total of 48 visually impaired candidates registered and sat for the examination, with four of them obtaining credits in five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.