The Nation Newspaper

Tag: West African Examination Council [WAEC]

  • Don decries inadequate facilities, lecturers in higher institutions

    A don, Dr Awotein George, has decried the inadequate learning and teaching facilities in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

    George told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Friday that the student’s population and available learning facilities were far apart.

    George, Head of Department (HOD), Fisheries and Aquatic Environment, Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt, said students population out weighted available learning facilities.

    “Universities (students) are increasing year after year, while the learning facilities/lecturers are not increasing,” he said.

    He said the situation had made effective assessment of students difficult.

    The don said Joint Matriculation Admission Board (JAMB) might have banned candidates on awaiting West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) results from registering for JAMB.

    The HOD noted that JAMB’s decision could have come on the heels of the computer based examination.

    He said the available computers might not go round the candidates if not the policy.

    “The JAMB examination is computer-based; where are the computer facilities, and electricity supply, especially in the rural areas,” he said.

    George advised those affected by the ban to use the one year period to acquire relevant skills.

     

  • APC, PDP trade words as WAEC withholds Bayelsa’s results

    APC, PDP trade words as WAEC withholds Bayelsa’s results

    The Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, lamented that the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has withheld the results of the state’s indigenous candidates.

    The party said the examination body took the action following the inability of the state government led by Mr. Seriake Dickson, to pay the required fees of the candidates.

    But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fired back describing the position of the APC as a mischievous and total display of ignorance.

    APC in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Panebi Fortune, regretted that under Dickson a generation of youths was on the verge of being wasted with the seizure of the results.

    “WAEC had refused to release the results over unpaid debts owed it by the Bayelsa state government. By implication, pupils who made respective cut-off marks in the last Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination (UTME) might forfeit their admissions”, the party said.

    The party berated Dickson, accusing him of deliberately scuttling the destinies of bright children who are leaders of tomorrow.

    APC said: ”While the situation of the non-payment of teachers’ salaries in Bayelsa continues to be an embarrassment to all and sundry even as the governor’s deliberate impoverishment of public servants has now become an ego issue on his part, a far more dangerous twist is looming in the education sector in Bayelsa state.

    “This is the seizure of the results of secondary school pupils by WAEC over the state government’s refusal to pay statutory dues.

    “This is a brazen act, the height of irresponsibility on the part of a government. To say the least, Governor Dickson is deliberately wasting away a generation of tomorrow’s leaders due to his inaction in this regard.

    “While we call on well meaning individuals to prevail on the governor, we sympathize with the parents of the pupils for this pain, an ordeal not worth it for whatever reason.

    “To the affected pupils, while we pray for a divine intervention in this regards, we share in your distress, despair, and disappointment”.

    ‎The party also noted that public primary and secondary schools in Bayelsa had yet to resume for the 2016/2017 session because of the failure of the state government to settle the seven-month salary arrears it owed teachers.

    But the PDP in a statement signed by its state Chairman, Mr. Moses Cleopas, said the allegation was a deliberate deceit to score cheap political points.

    Cleopas said the APC lacked moral justification to criticise the Dickson’s administration, because “what Bayelsa State is going through is as a result of the misrule by the APC-led government at the centre.”

    He said the misrule of APC “has completely ruined the nation’s economy, through its inability to initiate policies to reinvigorate the economy.”

    According to him, the situation in Bayelsa State was made worse by the financial recklessness and huge debt burden left behind by the immediate past administration in the state, which was under the leadership of Chief Timipre Sylva.

    He said that the PDP administration had spent N100bn to service the bond liability it inherited from that administration.

    Cleopas said that despite the huge debt burden it inherited from Sylva’s administration, the PDP government under Dickson had through careful application of the scarce resources at its disposal, kept the machinery of the government running.

    He said the people of the state including the parents of the affected candidates understood the level of wastage in the Chief Sylva years.

    He called on the APC leadership at the state and federal levels to apologise to Bayelsans and Nigerians for subjecting the people to untold hardship.

    According to him, the “Dickson-led administration will not allow itself to be distracted by charlatans, who have proved time and again, that they do not have anything positive to offer the people of the state”.

  • WAEC to mark scripts electronically

    WAEC to mark scripts electronically

    The West African Examination Council (WAEC) will begin marking theory scripts electronically with the 2016 November/December West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

    WAEC’s Head of National Office, Mr Olutise Adenipekun, who spoke when members of the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) visited his office on Tuesday, said the e-marker was introduced to align the assessment of the examination with international best practices.

    “We are providing service and the people we are providing service for are youths of the country and youth naturally are restless. So they also want to see new things,” he said.

    Adenipekun explained that the same booklet would serve for question and answers for the theory section. As a result, candidates would no longer be allowed to take questions away from the examination hall.

    He said some teachers have undergone training to deploy the e-marker, adding that many more would be trained.

    He promised that the WAEC template of assessing candidates will remain the same adding that it will not be in the interest of Nigeria to lower the standard of the examination for whatever reason.

    Adenipekun praised EWAN for its foresight and contributions to national growth and development through quality reports.

    In his speech, the EWAN Chairman, Mr. Tunbosun Ogundare, thanked WAEC for recognising the association.

    He also pledged the commitment of the body to improved education coverage towards achieving the required reform in the sector.

    He however appealed to the management of the examination body to extend training and other collaborative programmes to the association’s members as a way of enhancing their knowledge of the education sector, saying such support will help the beneficiaries in the discharge of their responsibilities.

  • Abia coming first at WASSCE results

    Abia coming first at WASSCE results

    …Ikpeazu gives scholarship to 17 Students to university level

     

    The governor of Abia state, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has given scholarship to 17 students who were among those who came first from the state after the West African School Certificate Examination [WASSCE] results was released.

    The 17 students who are to come from each of the from the 17 local government areas of the state are part of the ways the governor is using to encourage students and teachers to ensure better performance in this years’ examination.

    The governor’s gesture was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary [CPS] Enyinnaya Appolos, saying that Ikpeazu is congratulating students and teachers in the state over the ranking of the state as the number one state in the May/June 2015 WASSCE result as released by the examination body.

    Appolos said that the scholarship is for the students to study in any university of their choice within the country, “In recognition of the excellent performance of the schools and students in the state’s school system”.

    He said, “Governor Ikpeazu has approved the award of tertiary education scholarship to the best students after the release of the WASSCE results from each of the 17 local government areas of the state to study in any Nigerian tertiary institution”.

    The CPS said that the governor explained that the scholarship will not end with the students who did well in last year’s examination results released by WASSCE, “Those who  will do well in this year’s and other years examination will also receive the same gesture”.

    The CPS said that the governor has directed the Commissioner for Education, Professor Ikechi Mgboji, to forward to him the list of the best student from each LGA of the state in the 2015 WASSCE examination results to enable him receive them and give them their scholarship documents.

    Appolos said that the governor has challenged the Commissioner, teachers and students in the state to ensure that the state maintains this top position in the education sector.

    He said that the governor has promised that he will do everything possible to ensure  much more improved students and teachers welfare that will enhance the performance of Abia students in future examinations.

    The Nation recalls that West African Examination Council [WAEC] recently released details of the performance of students by state andAbia State came first as the best performing state, while 35 other states and Abuja queued behind.

    Abia State has consistently maintained top position in the WASSCE performance chart in the past five years and the present administration is determined to ensure that it sustains the trend.

    In results released for 2014 and 2013 Abia came second behind Anambra State but has now overtaken Anambra state as the overall best and 1st in the WASSCE performance chart for 2015 examinations.

    The State topped the chart with 33, 762 of its 52, 801 candidates, scoring 63.94 per cent in the results released by the WASSCE for the year 2015 academic year.

    It will also be recalled that Ikpeazu during this year’s children’s day celebration donated 3 Toyota Camry cars to the best primary teachers from each senatorial zone of the state as part of the ways to

    encourage them.