The May/June 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would be written by 1, 607, 985million candidates in 20, 221 secondary school nationwide.
Head of the National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr. Patrick Areghan, who disclosed the number of candidates, said the school exam would be conducted from May 16 to June 23rd, 2022.
Briefing newsmen on the forthcoming school exam, Areghan, said candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, made up of 197 papers while about 30,000 supervisors would participate in the May/June 2022 WASSCE.
According to him, two states, Sokoto and Zamfara did not present candidates for the school exam but stressed that private schools in the states presented candidates.
The HNO acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 created tension, uncertainty, disruption of socio-economic and academic activities. He said the council was also not excluded as the effect almost hindered the conduct of WASSCE in 2020 and 2021.
He added: “The revert to May/June period for the conduct of the examination should be celebrated. The significance of this is that WAEC and the various member states, save Ghana, have now again found a common ground in respect of their academic calendars. This shows a massive recovery from the devastating effects, disruptions, and confusion caused by the pandemic.
“Out of this number 800,055 are males, comprising (49.76%) while 800,724 are females, comprising (50.24%) of the total candidature.”
Areghan explained that it has been difficult navigating the way to May 16, 2022, stating, “Non-adherence to registration deadline was a major problem. You will be surprised to hear that even though entries were floated on December 6th, 2021, and were billed to end on April 3, 2022, we could not actually close entries until late April, due to pressures from different stakeholders.”
He said the pressure impacted negatively on the preparation of pre-examination, examination, and post examination materials, noting, “even as I speak, some private schools are still disturbing us with requests for entries.
“This is laughable and it is not good enough. It is nothing but an attempt to commit fraud by the schools involved. This is certainly not good for the operations of the council and the entire system. Registration of candidates is not an open-ended thing.”
The WAEC boss said the council frowns at examination malpractice of any kind, stressing that the penalties for involvement in any form of examination malpractice would be meted out to erring candidates, supervisors, schools as would be approved by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), which is the highest decision-making organ of the Council that sits on examination matters in Nigeria.
He called on parents and guardians to admonish their wards to study hard and desist from engaging in any form of examination malpractice.
“The mass media must play its watchdog role. The various Ministries of Education should call their principals, teachers and other officials serving as inspectors, to order. Every candidate and examination functionary must play by the rules, which are well stipulated in the WAEC syllabus and guidelines for the conduct of examinations issued to schools.
“Erring schools will be derecognized; erring officials would be adequately punished while erring candidates would lose their results, no matter whose ox is gored.”
Areghan warned supervisors to desist from aiding and abetting examination malpractice by assisting candidates; one way or the other, especially by allowing them to enter the examination hall with their cell phones and make use of the same.
“This is shameful and indecorous. We shall fish them out and deal with them. All hands must be on deck to sanitize the education sector.”
He said the council is not oblivious of the existence of the so-called ‘miracle centres’, even though it is not the coinage of WAEC, stating, “they exist only in the imagination of their operators and patronizers.”
The HNO described the miracle centres as where parents pay huge sums of money to procure assistance for their children or wards and argued that WAEC is certainly not a party to the arrangement.
His words: “We are closely watching all suspected schools. However, remotely located they may be, we will fish them out and deal with them by deploying our in-build anti-malpractice mechanism.
“It is left for candidates and school to choose between something or nothing: risk not having your result and wasting the entire six years you spent in school, as per candidates, or as a school, risk being derocognised. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
Areghan said the council is aware of the level of insecurity in the country and that conducting examinations under a hostile atmosphere is a herculean task.
“There are many flash points all over the country and conducting examinations in such areas would require extra security arrangements. Accordingly, we are liaising with the Inspector General of Police and the various state governments to provide security in order to ensure that the examination is conducted in a secure and safe environment,’’ he noted.
He explained that the results of WASSCE 2022 would be released 45 days after the conduct of the last paper, while the certificates will be printed and issued to schools in less than 90 days after the release of the results.
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