WAEC Releases Provisional Results, Investigates Results Of Top Performing Schools

By K. Ericson Sayee

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) on September 16, 2024, released its provisional results for the 2024 West African Senior Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), as it withholds results for 725 candidates from 534 institutions for alleged malpractices.

Making the pronouncement on Monday, Sept 16, 2024, in Monrovia, at its headquarters in Congo Town, WAEC-Liberia Chairman Dale Gbotoe disclosed that the schools results are being withheld due to discovery of misconducts, including the use of cellphones, foreign materials, and others.

The WAEC head noted that because of investigations that are ongoing in cases where large numbers of students from the same schools scored similar marks, the top performing students and schools will not be announced nor accessed their results, saying that such performance raises concerns about potential irregularities because it is impossible for more than ten students from the same school to have equal marks.

He vowed to penalize any institution found culpable of misconduct, as investigations are ongoing, stating that those candidates whose results have been seized will not access their results until WAEC is pleased with the answers and justifications that will be presented by their schools.

"For those of you who have begun paying money to your school to undertake this process with WAEC as your schools have requested to run after your results, you are doing it at your own risk. Our investigation will not be monetized and that will go in accordance with WAEC procedure", Mr. Gbotoe sounded a warning to schools and their students.

Giving the overview of the provisional results of the WASSCE, Mr. Gbotoe disclosed that the total of 47, 255 candidates who sat the English Language exam, 25,740 failed, while of the total of 45, 998 students that wrote the mathematics, 31,677 candidates also failed, stating that surprisingly, more students received credits in Mathematics than English Language.

For Economics and Biology, Mr. Gbotoe noted that total of 26,716 of the 44,288 candidates passed Economics, while 33,062 of the 48,754 candidates passed Biology, making the two subjects to be the most performing subjects, putting the two courses at 60 percent and above in terms of massive performance.

At the same time, he revealed that 13,324 of the 43,018 candidates passed History, and 1,518 of the 42,788 candidates passed Literature-in-English. In the Sciences, 12,726 of the 40,098 candidates passed Chemistry, while 17,336 of the 42,658 students passed Physics, 20,810 of the 48,354 candidates passed Geography.

The WAEC boss also averred that his institution is releasing this year’s results at this time for participating schools and candidates because of a barrage of challenges being encountered by the entity, stating that students will access their results beginning Sept. 18, 2024.

However, the WAEC-Liberia boss named Maryland County as the top-performing county, achieving the highest overall pass rate with 98.29 percent of candidates passing the WASSCE.

Commenting on the delay of this year's results, Mr. Gbotoe outlined the delays of registration from schools during the registration periods, the late arrival of test scripts in other parts of the country, and the limited answer sheets which led to students using their booklets to answer their questions and that it is daunting to mark or correct such papers as compared to when machines are used to correct papers using the answer sheets.

He made known that WAEC has in its possession huge answer sheets as a means of averting the reoccurrence of what was experienced in the last examinations administered for the 12th graders.

Mr. Gbotoe then thanked the government, educational stakeholders, public, citizens, candidates, and schools for the exercise of patience as they have been awaiting the results which are needed to kick start graduation across the country.

Also, making remarks for the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education, Amos Fully, Deputy Minister for Instruction at the Ministry of Education expressed the government's commitment to supporting the West African Examination Council, calling on school operators to conduct graduation in accordance with the ministry's mandate.

He warned schools against graduating students without following the ministry's instructions on students passing at least five subjects inclusive of Mathematics and English.

Minister Fully wants all educational stakeholders to execute whatever mandates the Ministry gives, saying that by going by the standards set, it will also help to revamp and resuscitate the education system of the country.