There is no doubt that seven decades after its establishment in 1952, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has had a memorable and reasonably successful journey in the ongoing fulfillment of its founding vision “To be a world-class examination body, adding value to the educational goals of its stakeholders”. The 70th annual council meeting of the body, which took place in Abuja last week, was certainly justified to engage in self-congratulations that WAEC has largely met its three-fold mission of “maintaining internationally accepted procedures, keep providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment as well as keep promoting sustainable human resources development, mutual understanding and international cooperation”. In discharging its legal mandate of determining the examinations required in the public interest in the Anglophone countries of West Africa, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, conducting the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities internationally, WAEC has commendably maintained its institutional integrity as an institution as well as the credibility and reputability of its examinations and certificates.
Millions of young people over the years have passed through the portals of WAEC examinations in English-speaking West African countries to fulfill their professional aspirations in life. Very few bodies in the region have attained WAEC’s level of longevity while retaining its stability, cohesion and effectiveness. This is partly due to the rigorous work that went into laying a solid foundation for the body at its inception. The result was the establishment of an organisational structural solidity predicated on five committees- the administrative and finance committee, school examinations committee, public service examinations committee, professional, technical and commercial examinations committee and the local committee. These are in turn organised around the international committees which handle matters affecting all members and harmonisation of national views as regards the council’s policies as a whole, national committees which coordinate issues relating to specific member countries and sub committees, which work on various aspects of the council’s activities. It is thus not surprising that WAEC has been able to successfully handle the complexities of its multinational mandate.
Of course, WAEC has had its own share naturally of failings and shortcomings. For instance, it experienced an examination leakage scandal in the 1970s widely known as the ‘Owosho scandal’. Again, it had to deal with an even wider examination fraud in 1977 popularly termed EXPO ’77 and in 1982 it faced allegations that some of its examination papers were sold. Even then, given the number and magnitude of the examinations under its purview, WAEC has performed quite well on this score. Some of the examinations handled by WAEC include WASSCE for private candidates, first series (January to February), WASSCE for school candidates (March to May), WASSCE for private candidates, main GCE, (September to October) in addition to national examinations taken in individual countries.
Again, WAEC coordinates examinations in collaboration with some reputable examination bodies namely City and Guilds of London Institute, Royal Society of Arts and the WAEC Research Institute. Furthermore, the council conducts examinations in West Africa on behalf of international examinations bodies such as University of London GCE, JAMB examinations in countries outside Nigeria and Scholastic Aptitude Test and Graduate Record Examinations for Educational Testing Service, Princeton, USA. WAEC evidently takes seriously the demand of its establishment ordinance which empowers the body to conduct examinations and award certificates provided that these are qualitatively at par with equivalent certificates of examination authorities in the UK.
When it clocked 30 in 1982, WAEC inaugurated an endowment fund to promote educational development aimed at improving education at the international level and also give prizes to overall outstanding candidates in its examinations.
Critics have pointed out that WAEC must urgently update its curriculum to reflect advances in technology and best global practices. We agree. Others have also blamed the council for youths in West Africa reportedly performing below the level of their colleagues in western countries and their other subcontinental counterparts. This is however debatable as West African students are known to record impressive academic performances in the best higher institutions abroad. Other multinational organisations in other spheres in West Africa surely have a lot to learn from WAEC, particularly the consistently high quality of its leadership over the years.