The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has declared that the 2020 and 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination withheld results of candidates who were cleared will be released immediately (WASSCE).
This comes two months after The ICIR stated that 170,146 applicants, or 10.9% of those who took the 2021 WASSCE, had their results withheld by WAEC.
Only the results of applicants cleared of test fraud were made public, according to WAEC, in a statement issued at the conclusion of the 72nd meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee and signed by Acting Head Moyosola Adeyegbe on behalf of the Head of National office.
Why The WAEC 2021 Results Were WithHeld
According to the communiqué, the committee received reports on irregularity, special, and clemency cases related to the administration of the WASSCE for private candidates in 2020, including the second series and the WASSCE for private candidates in 2021—the first series previously considered at its 71st meeting.
The committee also received and took into account reports on the WASSCE administration for school candidates in 2021 as well as incidences of irregularity resulting from the administration of the test.
When candidates were implicated in cases of malpractice, the testing organization approved the revocation of their results.
Read also about WAEC Held Results or WAEC Grading System
“After careful consideration of the many reported examples of malpractice, the Committee approved appropriate sanctions in each case of malpractice that was found to have occurred, as required by the Rules and Regulations regulating the administration of the council’s examinations.
The communique continued, “It authorized that the subject results of candidates proven to have been involved in malpractice cases that attract the penalty of Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR) be similarly canceled, as well as the entire results of candidates proven to have been involved in malpractice cases that attract the penalty of Cancellation of Entire Results.
Additionally, WAEC stated that sanctions would be applied to anyone found guilty of exam-related malfeasance.
The punishment includes a two-year suspension from taking any of the council’s exams.
Schools that were found to be engaging in malpractice will either have their recognition fully withdrawn or de-recognized for a set period of time.
According to the communique, invigilators will also be submitted to the proper authorities for disciplinary action along with supervisors who were found to be unsatisfactory in the performance of their examination duties.
The highest authority in Nigeria for making decisions regarding examination-related issues is the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC).
The committee declared that it would quickly put the decisions made at the meeting into action, noting that it had properly informed the candidates and schools who would be impacted.
Candidates who were cleared by the committee would, however, immediately receive their findings.
According to a statement released in November 2021 by Patrick Areghan, head of WAEC’s Nigeria National Office, 170,146 candidates’ results—or 10.9% of all those who took the exam—were withheld due to numerous alleged incidences of examination malpractice.