WAEC System Is Now Under Control
PHOTO: Dale Gbotoe, head of WAEC Liberia
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has clarified that a system error developed after it released the results of the annual 12th, 9th and 3rd exams has now been corrected.
WAEC Monrovia Office head, Dale Gboto earlier this week said majority of the candidates who sat the exams in Liberia this year performed better than previous years.
Prof. Ansu Sonii, Liberian Education Min.
“The overall performance of the candidates at the passing rate of at least a subject on the Examination is encouraging as compared to their counterparts who sat the same examination in 2022.”
But after the results were announced, an error developed in the online system as candidates who sat the exams began trying to access their results.
BELOW IS A RELEASE FROM THE WAEC MANAGEMENT ON ITS OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE:
August 24, 2022
Monrovia – The Monrovia Office of the West African Examinations Council ((WAEC) has recognized that its system responsible for result checking developed a slight system error and has ensured a swift correction of said error.
The Management of WAEC is cognizant that candidates who have checked their individual results have on their online results ” Division I” as a result of the error. We are pleased to inform you that efforts have been exerted and the system is now running properly, and that candidates can begin rechecking their results, as the error has been resolved.
WAEC wishes to therefore clarify that there is no such thing as Division I, II, and III on its examinations since the introduction of WASSCE in 2018, as candidates are eligible for certificates in any number of subjects they pass in.
The Management of the Council’s Monrovia Office sincerely apologizes to its stakeholders, the candidates, and the public for the inconveniences experienced as a result of the system error and recommits her pledge to quality service delivery to beneficiaries of her services.
MANAGEMENT
WAEC Liberia
Below is the announcement of the WAEC exams results released earlier this week:
The West African Examination Council(WAEC) on August 22,2023 through its Chairperson Dale Gbotoe released its West African Senior School Certificate results with Two females of the Ford Madden Christian Academy emerging as dux.
The two females are Desires Saygarn came first with a score of 523.7437 while Pricilia L. Cooper came second with a score of 516.9156 and Landford L. Zayzay a male taking third place with a score of 509.0717.
- ENTRIES FOR THE EXAMINATION
The entries for the Examination were received online and the number of candidates from both public and private schools is as follows in Table 1:
Table 1: Summary Entry Statistics per School Type
- PERIOD FOR THE EXAMINATION
The Examination was administered in Liberia from May 16 to June 6, 2023, at 362 centers in the country. Three hundred and sixty-two (362) supervisors and one thousand two hundred and forty-six (1,246) proctors were involved in the administration of the examination.
- CHALLENGES
The Secretariat of the Monrovia Office of WAEC encountered several challenges ranging from the Omission of some candidates by their schools during the entry period to circulation of examination materials on social media during the conduct of the examination. A summary of those challenges is highlighted as follows:
(1) Late Submission or Omission of Entries bySome Schools
Despite the Government of Liberia’s commitment to paying the examination fee for all 12th graders in Liberia entering for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates and the Secretariat allotment of six hundred and fifty (650) spaces to each school recognized by the Ministry of Education to submit their candidates’ entries, some school authorities claimed to have inadvertently omitted some of the candidates during the entry period for the examination even though nearly all of them did not even use up to 150 of the 650 spaces previously provided to them. The Secretariat being cognizant of the fact that these candidates were not responsible for their own registration, made provision to accommodate these candidates as Walk-In Candidates. Walk-In Candidates are candidates who were not registered during the normal registration period but were permitted totake the examination without Identification Number and their registration details were to be forwarded to the Office by the affected schools.
During WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023, six hundred and ninety (690) candidates sat the examination as Walk-In Candidates. Of this number, only thirty-three (33) candidates’ results will be released and the results for the remaining six hundred and fifty-seven (657) candidates could not be processed as no details were received from their schools. Unfortunately, these candidates will have to do the test again either as private candidates or repeat and sit the examination in 2024.
(2) Submission of Non-Human Images asCandidates’ Photos
During the entry period, school authorities are required to submit the biodata, photos, and subjects to be taken by their candidates as well as the school grades for those subjects electronically using the WAEC Online Registration Portal. Over the years, some schools have been forwarding non-human images such as flowers, flags, school,or church emblems, etc. as their candidates’ images or photos that WAEC is expected to emboss on the certificates of successful candidates.
Over the last four years, certificates for candidates with non-human images have not been printed as those affected candidates won’t be able to present such certificates anywhere as their certificates. In 2022, the Secretariat decided to withhold and later canceled the results of only candidates with non-human images to serve as deterrent for future occurrences.
During the entry period for the 2023 series of examinations for school candidates, the Secretariat warned schools that effective 2023, schools submitting non-human images for their candidates will have the entire results for those schools being canceled.
Apparently, some schools did not heed to that warning, and they proceeded with submitting non-human images for some of their candidates. Consequently, twenty-eight (28) schools with two thousand, two hundred and sixty-two (2,262) candidates will have all their candidates’ results canceled. It is anticipated that this will deter schools from submitting images that are not their candidates’ to WAEC in the future.
(3) Deplorable Roads Condition in Some Counties
As the examination was administered during the rainy season, roads such as the southeastern corridor, and some parts of Lofa were very challenging. At one point in time, the office had to spend US$15,000.00 just to charter a domestic flight for a single day to airlift the examination materials to the southeastern region. Even though deplorable roads pose serious threat to the smooth conduct of the examination, no candidate in any part of the country missed any of the test because of the test materials not being delivered on time. All papers started at the same time throughout the country.
(4) Use of Social Media to Perpetrate Examination Malpractice
Ladies and gentlemen, there are some so-called educated and “sophisticated” people who are bent on destroying the future of our nation at all costs. These are the “White collared ZOGOES”!
They pretend to mean well for this nation but are destroying the future of Liberia. Some of these people, sadly, are in the educational system.
What kind of knowledge are they imparting if I may ask?
During the just ended WASSCE, some unscrupulous Liberians collaborated with foreign actors in circulating the examination questions on the social media. There were even times when we,as an office, did not have the live questions in our possession yet, they had it.
Because of an ongoing investigation that we don’t want to jeopardize, the names of those individuals are being withheld for now. These individuals are enemies of the State as it is the future of Liberia that they are endangering.
While we are withholding their names, we also want them to know that we are aware that they, once upon the time sat WAEC examination and their certificates can be revoked! Once their results are with us and are available online, we will block them once the investigation is concluded and they are found culpable.
- WITHHELD RESULTS
The results for some candidates and in some instances, all candidates from some schools are being withheldpending further investigation and determination by the appropriate committee of Council. The summary of the withheld results is as follows:
(1) Irregularity Involving Individual Candidates
One thousand, seven hundred and ninety-nine(1,799) candidates’ results are being withheld for their involvement in four types of Examination Malpractice as follows:
Table 2:
2) Irregularity Involving All Candidates from ASchool
The subject results for seven hundred and fifty-eight schools comprising forty-eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety-one (48,791) candidates are being withheld for their involvement in two types of Examination Malpractice as follows:
Table 3
- PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES ON THE2023 EXAMINATION
The overall performance of the candidates at the passing rate of at least a subject on the Examination is encouraging as compared to their counterparts who sat the same examination in 2022. Nine subjects were offered on the examination with the Arts candidates sitting for seven of the nine subjects while the Science candidates sat a minimum of eight of the nine subjects.
(1) Performance Per Subject
The table below provides the performance of candidates for WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023 on subject basis.
Table 4
The table above shows that the performance trend for the three years fluctuated in three subjects, History, Literature-In-English, and English Language The performance for the same period shows an upward trend in six subjects, Economics, Geography, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.
(3) Three-Year (2021 – 2023) Comparative Performance on WASSCE for School Candidates.
The table below provides the comparative performance for the period 2021 to 2023 for WASSCE.
Table 6
The table above shows that the 2023 candidates performed slightly better than their counterparts in 2022 in seven (7) of the fifteen categories and in eight(8) of the categories in 2021
(4) Statistics of Performance per County as a Passing Rate of At least E8 in At least One Subject on the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)
Table 7 below shows the performance per county of the candidates that passed at least one subject on WASSCE.
Table 7
Best Performing Candidates
(a) Candidates Who Passed with Credit Scores In A Minimum Of Five Subjects Including English Language & Mathematics
Thirty (30) candidates comprising nine (9) males and twenty-one (21) females from four(4) schools in two (2) counties obtained a minimum of five credit passes inclusive of English Language and Mathematics on the Examination. The table below provides the counties the candidates came from.
Table 8
Overall Best Performing Candidates
The three top performing candidates on the examination came from two different schools in Montserrado. The details of the three candidates are provided in the table 9 below.
Table 9
(c) Best Performing Candidate per County
Table 10 below shows the top performing candidates per county on the Examination. To be considered as a top performing candidate, one must obtain at least five credit scores in English Language and Mathematics along with any three other subjects offered on the examination.
Table 10
** No candidate obtained the minimum five credit scores.
++ County with the highest candidature
CHECKING OF RESULTS
School authorities can begin accessing their candidates’ results from the WAEC Online School Registration Portal using https://wassce.liberiareg.orgwhile candidates can start accessing their results individually by using their Identification Numbers along with their Result Checker Serial Numbers and Pins indicated on their Admission Notices effective tomorrow, August 23, 2023 by logging-in to https://result.liberiareg.org .
- CONCLUSION
Distinguished members of the Fourth Estate, the Secretariat of WAEC wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the President, the Government, and people of the Republic of Liberia for the confidence they continue to repose in WAEC to execute the mandate of the Council in Liberia. The Secretariat is immensely grateful to the Government of Liberia for paying the fees for candidates who registered for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates, 2023. The Secretariat wishes to assure the Government and people of Liberia that it will continue to explore innovative ways of providing quality service delivery to the people of Liberia and the sub-region in the years ahead.
The Secretariat also wishes to appreciate the Honorable Minister of Education along with his Senior Management Team, the Government Nominees to Council, Members of Council, Educational Secretariats, School Authorities, the Liberia National Police and other actors in the Security Sector, the Liberia Revenue Authority, the Managements of the Roberts International Airport, Cuttington University, our Supervisors, Proctors, Monitors, Depot Officers, Examiners, Checkers, Auxiliary Staff, drivers, the Media, all candidates and their parents as well as allother stakeholders who supported and collaborated with the Secretariat during the conduct of WAEC Examinations for School Candidates in 2023.
Finally, let me also appreciate the Heads of Division and indeed all staff of the Liberia National Office of WAEC for their cooperation, support, and commitment to excellence in the execution of the Council’s mandate in Liberia.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Professor Ansue Sonii praised President George Weah for taking the parent positions by paying fees of WASSEC for students across the country. Minister Sonii used the occasion to called on parents not to pay exorbitant graduation to any school. He said graduation is US$100 only and any parents found pay more than that amount should blame themselves and the Ministry. He dispelled rumors that schools will not close because of elections activities.