29 per cent pass recorded in Nov/Dec WASSCE

TWENTY-nine per cent of the 246,853 candidates made credits in five
subjects, including English and Mathematics, in the November/December
2014 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for
private candidates.
The Head of National Office (HNO) of the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC), Dr Charles Eguridu, said this yesterday while
announcing the result at the WAEC Headquarters in Yaba, Lagos.
The percentage, according to Eguridu, represents an improvement in
performance, compared to 2013 edition of the examination when only
26.97 per cent of candidates met the benchmark used for admission into
tertiary institutions.
But in 2012, 34.84 per cent made the benchmark.
In the examination, 75,313 candidates (30.50 per cent) made six
credits and above, and 110,346 candidates (44.70 per cent) had five
credits and above.
He explained that the results of 5,691 candidates are pending due to
technical errors, mostly attributed to the candidates in the course of
registration or writing.
Eguridu added that the results of 28,817 candidates (11.57 per cent)
have been withheld for involvement in examination malpractice.
He, however, warned that performance in the Senior School Certificate
Examinations (SSCE) should not be determined by the number of credit
passes in Mathematics and English.
Eguridu explained that as an examination that private candidates write
mostly to make up for deficiencies in particular subjects, it would be
an "abuse of statistics" to lump those who did not write the two
subjects (because they don't need them), with those that did not make
credits in the subjects when attempting to assess performance in the
examination.
"This is a private candidate examination. Those candidates who had
issues with perhaps only Biology, and they registered to write only
Biology in this examination, they form part of the overall entry. And
if they did not write Mathematics and English, and you use their
population to calculate the percentage of success of those who had
credits in Mathematics and English, that could be an abuse of
statistics.
"Judging success in our examination based on those who had credit in
Mathematics and English is not good and is not right. It is an abuse
of statistics," he said.
The HNO explained that success in Mathematics in particular, is not
necessary in all areas of academic endeavour.
Eguridu said: "Judging it using the criteria of those who obtained
credit in Mathematics and English, is it fair? My answer is 'No'.
Because as a student of Theatre Arts, I have no business learning
quadratic equation in order to perform well. If the university system
demands it, it is because they don't have the carrying capacity and
they have to set certain benchmarks in order to select their
candidates."