Stakeholders in the education sector, including educationists and parents, yesterday, decried the poor performance of students in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The results released yesterday indicated that out of the 1,969,313 candidates who sat for the examination, only 754,545 candidates, representing 38.32 per cent, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
It would be recalled that during this year’s examination, some school adopted the Computer- Based Test method, while others opted for the Paper- Based Test method.
The Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO) of WAEC, Amos Dangut, who announced the release of the results during a media briefing at the examination body’s headquarters in Lagos, stated that this year’s result showed a 33.8 per cent decrease in performance compared to 72.12 per cent recorded in 2024.
He stated that results of 192,089 candidates, representing 9.75 per cent of the total number of candidates were withheld over various reported cases of malpractice.
According to him, the figure represented a 2.17 per cent decline compared to the 11.92 per cent recorded in the 2024 edition of the same examination.
He said that 1,973,365 candidates registered for the examination from 23,554 recognised secondary schools in Nigeria, but 1,969,313 candidates sat for the examination.
“The examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary schools is being used.
“I also wish to report that a total of 12,178 candidates with varying degrees of special needs registered for the examination.
“Out of this number, 112 were visually challenged, 615 had impaired hearing, 52 were spastic cum mentally- challenged, and 37 were physically -challenged.
“All these candidates were adequately provided for in the administration of the examination,” the WAEC boss said.
He gave the assurance that the results of the candidates had been processed and were also released along with those of other candidates.
“Of the total number of 1,969,313 candidates that sat for the examination, 976,787 were males, while 992,526 were females, representing 49.60 per cent and 50.40 per cent, respectively.
“Out of the total number of candidates that sat for the examination in Nigeria, 1,517,517 candidates, representing 77.06 per cent, have their results fully processed and released, while 451,796 candidates, representing 22.94 per cent, have one or more of their subjects still being processed due to some issues to be resolved.
“Efforts are, however, being made to speedily complete the processes to enhance the release of the affected candidates’ results within a couple of days,” he said.
Worst performance in years
The 38.32 per cent performance for this year is the worst performance in years.
Further findings revealed that the result is the poorest compared to those recorded since 2020.
In 2020, the examination body announced that 1,003,668 candidates, representing 65.24 per cent out of 1,601,047 who sat for the examinatons, obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
The following year, 2021, saw an improvement of 81.7 per cent pass rate recorded, translating to 16 per cent while it reduced to 76.36 per cent in 2022, representing more than 5 per cent decline in performance.
In 2023, the examination body recorded 79.81 per cent pass rate, including those who made English and Mathematics papers, while the pass rate reduced to 72.12 in 2024.
The examination’s body attributed the low record in pass rate to Computer Based Test (CBT) and serialisation approach, describing them as the innovative method to tackle examination malpractice.
The Head of Nigeria’s Office (HNO) of WAEC, Amos Dangut stressed that the serialisation approach deployed in the objective test question papers for Mathematics, English Language, Biology, and Economics exposed candidates copying from each other, a development which contributed to failure in those subjects.
“Under this approach, each candidate was assigned a specific paper type, making collusion and other forms of examination malpractice extremely difficult to perpetrate.
“Despite sternly advising candidates to work independently, we still recorded cases of candidates assigned different question papers who copied one another and had the same answers in virtually all questions.
“The effect of this activity was evident in the overall performance of candidates in the said papers. While performance in the essay papers remained comparable to those of the previous years, that of the objective papers recorded a slight but noticeable decline,” he said.
He noted that there was a decline from 11.5 to 9.75 per cent in the malpractice records in this year’s result.
Experts weigh in
The immediate past Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Monday Ubamgha, said decline in proper study time and poor quality of teachers were responsible for the low pass rate this year.
He also expressed concerns over the introduction of the CBT mostly for candidates in rural areas, saying lack of digital literacy poses a threat.
“No educational system can rise above the quality of its teachers. Teachers are not motivated and most of them see teaching as a part-time hustle. They engage in other things. The academic preparation before entering class is lacking.“Poor performance is a result of complex interplay of several factors. Schools in Nigeria are completely different from what we have, unfortunately instead of students taking advantage of new innovations to enhance learning, they spend most of their time on Facebook and Instagram,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr. Nelson Ayodele, an educationist, attributed the poor performance to the introduction of CBT.
“The renewed effort of the examination bodies to curb malpractice and a change in examination procedures caught many schools unawares. They found it difficult to circumvent the new procedures as they were used to doing in the past,” he said.
He added that lack of concentration by students and poor quality teachers had lowered the standard of education.
“Schools are losing their focus on academic management, especially in ensuring that the teachers do their job well and complete the syllabus contents before the time of examination.
“Teachers are getting more and more discouraged in their inability to discipline students’ unruly behaviour in the classrooms during lessons.
“Students are now inundated with media and technological distractions to the extent that focus on their studies now plays a second fiddle’’, he said.
He added that parental control had waned terribly in most homes, saying that no one really monitors the activities of students at home when they return from school.
He attributed the previous pass rate to examination malpractice, stressing that this year’s result reflects the effort of the innovative approach by the examination body.
“That is why you see that they do better in Ghana, Liberia, than we are doing here because we rely on examination malpractice.
“Nobody will be bold enough to say that is what we do, especially in private schools but in all honesty that is what we do in many private schools,” he said.
He added that lack of digital literacy to handle a computer could have contributed to the poor record, urging schools to prepare their students adequately for the next examination.
“Many of the students are not familiar with the use of computers, they don’t know how to log in, they have never seen computer before. So, sitting in front of a computer for the first time and being asked to run a test was overwhelming. That is the result we are seeing now.
“It is a very simple thing and a no-brainer; let us sit down and analyse this year results, look at all the reasons why the students failed and then get back to the drawing board and think of what we can do right from September. As soon as the students resume, let’s focus on preparing them adequately. Let the schools that don’t have enough systems, get more,” he said.
He advised parents to invest in their children technological literacy.
“Let parents who believe they want their children to do well invest in technological devices that they need, not the ones that they don’t need. Not buying PlayStation, when the child doesn’t have a functional laptop,” he said.He stressed the need for the examination body to organise orientation programmes for the students ahead of next year.
“We should have an orientation programme for the students. We should get different examination bodies to advise the students on what they should know and what they should avoid.
“We have been challenging schools’ management teams to focus on how students can do better in examinations without being assisted, and how a child will pass exams without being assisted should be our major focus,” he said.
A mother/ teen counsellor, Nike Ogunjobi highlighted that poor reading culture exacerbated by distraction of social media, contributes to students’ poor academic performance
“There are a lot of things that are responsible for the decline in results. Nowadays, reading culture is on the decline and students are not interested in reading again. They prefer to scroll their phone, moving from one social media page to another’’, she said.
She added that lack of motivation of teachers to properly prepare students plays a huge role in the decline of quality academic performance
“Most of them don’t even understand what they are reading because teachers add to these issues. Most of the teachers go into this profession because they did not get any other job. They took up the job just for survival, not because they want to add value.
“Once students cannot read or understand what they are taught, then they engaged in exam malpractice,” she said.
On solutions, she added, “the students have to get their priorities right by focusing on their studies and doing the right thing at the right time.
‘‘The teachers should know that they are not just teaching, they are nurturing future leaders, they are imparting whatever values that they are putting in.
“They should get proper training because they cannot give what they don’t have. A lot of teachers do not even understand what they are teaching, they just pick textbooks and read from them.”
Students react
Kehinde Michael, a student in Ogun State, who sat for the exams acknowledged the serialisation strategy, saying their objective questions were different.
He stressed that the time allotted to write the English examination could have contributed to students’ failure.
“Majority of students failed English because of wrong expressions in letter writing and for not picking the right options given in the objective questions,” he said.
Abdullahi Umaru attributed phobia for calculation to the failure in Mathematics.
“About mathematics, the majority of students have a phobia for calculation. The problem of not having good grades in mathematics starts from primary school. In addition, some students are slow learners and even if they study hard, they may still have problems,” she said.
A parent, Mrs. Adeyemi Grace, stated that the introduction of the CBT for the examination should be revisited.She added that the teachers need special training to improve on their teaching skills in order to prepare their students well enough for the examinations.
