The West African Examinations Council has said 81.7 per cent the candidates made credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics in the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination result.

About 1,274,784 million is 81.7 per cent of the total of 1,560,261 million candidates who sat the exam.

While announcing the release of the WASSCE result on Monday, the Head, Nigeria National Office, Mr Patrick Areghan, explained that there was an appreciable 16.46 per cent improvement, saying the percentage of candidates in the category in the WASSCE for school candidates, 2020 was 65.24 per cent.

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Areghan mentioned that out of the 1,560,261 million candidates that sat the examination, 1,398,370 million candidates, representing 89.62%, obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects (i.e with or without English Language and/ or Mathematics.

He said, “Out of the total number of candidates that sat the examination in Nigeria, 1,256,990 million candidates, representing 80.56% have their results fully processed and released while 303,271 candidates, representing 19.44 per cent have a few of their subjects still being processed due to some issues being resolved.”

He also complained about the activities of rogue-website operators and some other social media platforms, who always post examination questions online immediately after the commencement of the paper being administered.

“The results of 170,146 candidates, representing 10.9 per cent of the total number of candidates that sat the examination, are being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.

“The increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall and organised cheating in some schools are other big concerns. All the cases are being investigated and reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate committee of the Council for determination in due course,” he said.

Areghan noted that the exam, which took place simultaneously throughout the five member countries of the Council, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, used the same international timetable.

“The examination ended on October 8, 2021 and today, Monday, November 22, 2021; 45 days after the conduct of the last paper, we are releasing the result,” he said.