By Florence Ebebe
The West African Examinations Council has announced the commencement of 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates on Monday, May 8.
The examination which will hold same time in all other member countries, except Ghana, will last for seven weeks, ending on June 23 2023, according to the examination body.
Addressing the press at a conference held at their headquarters in Yaba, WAEC’s Head of National Office (HNO) in Nigeria, Mr. Patrick E. Areghan, said a total of 1,621,853 candidates from 20,851 secondary schools registered for the examination.
He further stated that candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, while about 30,000 practicing senior secondary school teachers, nominated by the various State Ministries of Education, would be participating in the examination as supervisors.
Said he: “A total of 1,621,853 candidates from 20,851 secondary schools have registered for the examination. Out of this number, 798,810 are males, amounting to 49.25%, while 823,043 are females, which is 50.75% of the total candidature.
“The statistics show that there is a further increase and decrease in the number of females and males respectively, compared to the 2022 diet. On the whole, the candidature for the 2023 WASSCE (SC) increased by 13, 868 over the figure of 2022 1,607,985.”
The HNO however warned that schools which failed to upload the Continuous Assessment score within the stipulated time after several free upload periods, would likely be slammed with penalties.
“CASS score is a major component in the computation of grades for candidates in the WASSCE (SC) examination. The use of technology has made it possible for the Council to provide platforms to enable schools to upload, manage and access students’ CASS data seamlessly and make such data available to schools on request.
“Currently, the Council allows upload of CASS data in SS1, SS2 and SS3, designated as CASS Year 1, CASS Year II, and CASS Year III at different upload periods. For each period of upload, the Council opens its portal free of charge for all schools and also extends the period of upload from time to time to enable all schools to upload. Schools that fail to upload within the expected time frame after several free upload periods face possible penalties.
“No school will have any result without complete CASS upload, Areghan threatened.
He assured that the council had put adequate security measures in place to ensure a hitch free examination.
However, the Council is facing a challenge in the implementation of the CASS policy due to the uncooperative attitude of some schools.”