The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has recorded mass failure in its 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates held in January.

This is the second time the examination body will record mass failure in its January examination since its introduction in 2018.

Announcing the results in Lagos on Tuesday, the Head of Nigeria National Office (HNO) of WAEC, Isaac Adenipekun, said out of 12,202 candidates that registered for the examination, 11,892 took part in the examination. Of this number, only 3,102 candidates representing 26.08 per cent obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects including English Language and General Mathematics.

Further breakdown of the results show that 8,782 candidates representing 75.15 per cent obtained credit and above in two subjects; 7,332 candidates representing 62.74 per cent obtained credit and above in three subjects; 5,850 candidates representing 50.06 per cent obtained credit and above in four subjects, and 4,314 candidates representing 36.28 per cent obtained credit and above in five subjects.

According to Mr Adenipekun, only 17.5 per cent of the more than 11,000 candidates who took part in the first edition of the examination, held in January 2018, secured credit and above in five subjects including English Language and Mathematics.

He said out of the 12,202 candidates that registered for the examination in 2019, 6,180 were male and 5,712 were female, representing 52 per cent and 48 per cent respectively.

Also, the official explained that the results of 376 candidates, representing 3.16 per cent of the total candidates for the examination, are being withheld due to various cases of examination malpractice.

He said the cases are being investigated and that the reports of the investigations will be presented to the appropriate WAEC committee in due course for consideration.

“The committee’s decisions will be communicated to the affected candidates,” Mr Adenipekun said.

According to Mr Adenipekun, the January diet, which is the third in the series of the examination conducted by WAEC in Nigeria, was aimed at providing an opportunity to willing candidates who may have missed the other two diets conducted in May/June and November/December.

“The coordination of examiners and marking of candidates’ scripts for the WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2019 – First Series was equally, successfully held from February 15 to 28, 2019 at three marking venues in Abeokuta, Kaduna and Enugu.

“We, therefore, wish to acknowledge the immense contributions of our chief examiners, team leaders, assistant examiners and checkers during the marking exercise. We are also grateful to schools that availed us the use of their facilities despite other commitments and challenges. We cannot thank them enough,” he said.