Last updated on May 8th, 2023 at 09:33 am
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) announced this at a pre-examination press briefing Thursday in Lago
The 2023 school-based West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will hold for seven weeks, spanning 8 May to 23 June.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) announced this at a pre-examination press briefing Thursday in Lagos.
In his remarks, the head of the national office, Patrick Areghan, mentioned that a total of 1,621,853 students from 20,851 public and private schools registered for the test.
The new development occurs when the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) completes the 2023 administration of its tertiary institution admission exams.
The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) is administered by JAMB to all applicants seeking admission nationally, and this year’s exam, which was originally slated to take place between April 25 and May 2, has been extended to Saturday, May 6.
May for candidates who missed the test due to valid circumstances.
increased number of female candidates
Mr. Areghan claims that the number of candidates who have registered for the 2023 election has risen from 1,607,985 in 2022 to 13,868 in 2023.
With respect to the registered number, Increased female candidates’ figure
According to Mr Areghan, the registered candidates for 2023 increased by 13,868 over the figure of 2022, which was 1,607,985.
Out of the registered number, the HNO said 798,810 are males, amounting to 49.25 per cent, while 823,043 are females, which is 50.75 per cent.
He noted that the candidates would be examined in 76 subjects, made up of 197 papers, adding that about 30,000 senior secondary school teachers, nominated by the various states’ education ministries, would be participating in the examination as supervisors.
Mr Areghan said the results of candidates sitting the examination will 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 results.
Data validation
The examination council said it has established a self-service system for candidates, through the CHATBOT Platform, to enable them to access their entries.
Mr Areghan explained that the platform is a service on the Request Management System/Chatbot on its official website which he noted allows students to confirm data uploaded for them by schools “in order to make necessary corrections (if any) on such data.”
“It provides two key services on the Request Management System which include Confirmation of Entry/Registration and Confirmation of Continuous Assessment Score (CASS),” he said.
He added that one of the reasons for the establishment of the candidate self-service is to make error identification and correction easy for candidates and all stakeholders;
NIN not compulsory
Speaking further, Mr Areghan said that the National Identification Number (NIN) was only made a component of the registration requirements, “but not compulsory.”
He said: “The policy came into being in line with the directive of the Federal Government. Candidates were expected to supply their NIN at the registration stage, but it was not a compulsory requirement in order to avoid denying many eligible candidates access to the portal/examination.
“Even after the registration exercise, candidates were still allowed to submit their NIN for upload. Therefore, no candidate was disqualified from registration as a result of non-submission of NIN at the beginning of the exercise, or, even later.”
The HNO, however, noted that the Continuous Assessment Score (CASS) score is a major component in the computation of grades for candidates in the WASSCE (SC) examination.
Mr Areghan also stated that no school would have any result without a complete CASS upload.
“Currently, the Council allows the 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,” he said.
Examination malpractice, insecurity
On examination malpractice, Mr Areghan reiterated that the penalties will be meted out to erring candidates, invigilators, supervisors, schools, and WAEC officials, as it would be approved by the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC).
NEC is WAEC’s highest decision-making organ that sits on examination matters in Nigeria.
“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,” Mr Areghan said adding that erring candidates would lose their results.
On the state of insecurity in the country, Mr Areghan said the examination body is “liaising with the Inspector General of Police, Brigade Commanders, other security agencies and the various State governments to provide security in order to ensure that the examination is conducted under a secure and safe environment.”
