WAEC speaks on mass failure in 2018 May/June examinations

The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has spoken on the decline in the pass rate of 2018 May/June examinations.

The council’s Head of National Office, Mr. Olu Adenipekun announcing the result in Lagos at the WAEC Training and Testing Centre (WTTC) said a total of 786,016 candidates of the 1,572,396 that wrote the examination had five credits and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

He said they recorded a 49.98 percent pass rate in the number of candidates that obtained credits and above in minimum of five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

However, some experts had blamed the decline in overall performance from 59.22 per cent in 2017 to 49.98 per cent credit passes on a large number of scripts examiners had to mark and rigid marking scheme by the board.

Responding to the claim that examiners had too many scripts to mark, Head, Public Affairs, WAEC, Mr. Damian Ojijeogu in a statement said, “The claim is not true because we made sure that there are adequate examiners in each marking venue. If there is none, we send them to where there are adequate examiners to mark the scripts.

“There is nothing like shortfall, and that cannot be attributed to the decline. They are not related at all, to the performance of candidates and examiners marking scripts.

“As for the cause of decline, as the examiners have marked, at the end of the day there will be a chief examiner’s report. They will look at the strength and weaknesses of the students; where they passed, why they passed and where they failed, why they failed.

“Until that report is ready we cannot say what caused the decline. The report will be made available at the Nigerians Examinations Committee meeting that will hold later.”