The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has increased its examination fee per candidate from N13,950 to N18,000 for the 2022 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSSCE).
Head of WAEC National Office (HNO), Mr. Patrick Areghan, announced this yesterday while addressing reporters on the release of this year’s WASSSCE at the council’s office in Yaba, Lagos.
Areghan said the increase became necessary because of rising costs the examination body was incurring in conducting its examinations.
“We have received approval from the appropriate quarters, with effect from the WASSCE for school candidates 2022, to charge N18,000 per candidate. We are, therefore, asking all school principals to collect N18,000 per candidate for registration. A part of this new fee has been dedicated to the enhancement of the remunerations for the various examination functionaries,” he said.
Areghan announced that 81.7 per cent of the candidates who took the 2021 WASSCE for school candidates made Credit passes in five subjects, including English and Mathematics.
It is the first time in more than one decade that Nigeria has recorded such performance.
The WAEC HNO said of the 1,560,261 Senior Secondary (SS) 3 candidates who sat for the examination, 1,274,784 achieved the minimum benchmark needed for admission into the university.
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Of the number, 630,138 (49.43 per cent) were males, while 644,646 (50.57 per cent) were females.
Speaking on how such good performance was achieved, Areghan said it should be attributed to efforts by the various states ministries of education, schools, and candidates.
“The good performance was not our doing. It is the doing, the efforts of the various ministries of education, schools and candidates. They may have used our chief examiner’s report to improve preparation for the examination.
“Let us not be doubting Thomases and incurable pessimists. Our results are verifiable,” he said.
For candidates in the Southeast whose examinations were disrupted by the sit-at-home order of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Areghan said they were registered free of charge for the WASSCE for private candidates to take the papers they missed.
He added that the result was being released 45 days after the seven-week examination ended on October 8, despite serious challenges the council faced in conducting and grading the examination.
“The examination ended October 8, 2021 and …45 days after the conduct of the last paper, we are releasing the result! This is a record time, taking into consideration the fact that we lost a week to insecurity, during the marking exercise in the Southeast, occasioned by the heightened tension before and during the Anambra governorship election,” he said.
The HNO also said the timetable for the 2022 examination would return to the normal May-June belt.
He added that the National Identity Number (NIN) would be a prerequisite for registration, urging candidates to ensure they enrol before then.
“Another component of the registration requirements will be the National Identification Numbers (NINs) of candidates. Schools will be expected to supply the NIN of every candidate as part of the registration requirements. This is in line with the directive of the Minister of Education.
“We advise all schools to comply accordingly. They should ensure that all their SS3 students and indeed, all students register to obtain their NIN in order to make the registration process seamless,” he said.
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