The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) at the end of its 67th Meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC), held last week, says candidates with proven cases of involvement in examination malpractices would have their results cancelled outrightly.

The Committee, which is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on examination-related matters relating to the conduct of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School and Private Candidates, added that subject results of candidates involved in proven cases which attract Cancellation of Subject Results (CSR), are to be cancelled also.

This was contained in a statement Issued and signed by Demianus Ojijeogu, Head, Public Affairs Department at the end of the meeting which held at the Excellence Hotel & Conference Centre, Ogba, Lagos.

In addition, the Committee in the statement said, “Some candidates will also suffer other sanctions such as barring them from sitting for the Council’s examinations for a certain number of years. The decisions of the Committee will be implemented without delay and the affected candidates and examination centres duly informed by the Council.

It added, “However, the results of candidates who were exonerated by the Committee will be released” just as it considered Special Cases, Clemency Cases and Restitution Cases from the WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2018-Second Series and 2019-First Series.

On the performances of candidates in specific subject areas, the NEC decried the decline in efforts of candidates in Literature-in English with less than 25% pass rate at Grades A1 to C6.

In view of this, the Nigeria Examinations Committee of WAEC  called on relevant stakeholders to arrest the ugly trend and appealed to parents to provide the recommended texts for their children and ensure that they study them for the examination.

With regards to the General Résumé of the Chief Examiners’ Reports on the WASSCE for Private Candidates, 2018-Second Series, the Committee noted the observation by the Chief Examiners that the standard of the papers compared favourably with those of previous years and that the clarity and unambiguity of the questions were worthy of note.

Acknowledging that the rubrics were clear, questions were explicit and the marking schemes were comprehensive, the Committee noted that the WASSCE for Private Candidates-First Series is gaining more acceptance as more candidates registered for the 2019 diet than the maiden edition in 2018.

It commended the Council for pioneering the initiative and appealed to the Council to increase publicity for the examination by extending the advertisement to schools.