The 45th Meeting of the Nigeria Examinations Committee (NEC) of The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was held from Tuesday, 25th to Thursday, 27th March, 2008 at Lafia Hotel, Ibadan, Oyo State.

The Nigeria Examinations Committee is the highest decision-making organ of WAEC on the conduct of examinations in Nigeria. The Committee’s statutory Chairman is the Director (Basic and Secondary Education), Federal Ministry of Education. Its membership includes four (4) representatives each of State Ministries of Education, the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) and the
Universities. At the 45th meeting of the Committee, however, the statutory Chairman of the Committee was unavoidably absent and Chief Nzemeka Olisah, representative of ANCOPSS, was elected to act as Chairman.

During the just-concluded 45th meeting, the Committee considered reports on the conduct of the November/December 2007 WASSCE as well as irregularity cases arising from the conduct of the examination in Nigeria. It also considered Special cases, Clemency cases, Late cases, Petitions, Restitution cases and cases referred for further investigation from previous examinations.

The Committee considered irregularity cases involving about 37,000 candidates who sat the November/December 2007 WASSCE in Nigeria, and whose results were withheld based on reports of their alleged involvement in examination malpractice. The cases considered included 1,343 cases in English Language and 1,349 cases in Mathematics, among other subjects.

After due consideration of each of the cases, the Committee applied the appropriate sanctions prescribed by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination. It directed that the entire results of all the candidates involved in 5,896 cases should be cancelled, and that the subject results of candidates involved in 3,866 cases should similarly be cancelled. In the same vein, supervisors and invigilators who were found to have condoned examination malpractice were recommended for sanction by appropriate authorities. However, a total of four candidates who were listed in two separate cases of irregularities were let off the hook for lack of convincing evidence against them.

The Committee also considered five Restitution cases and six Clemency cases at the meeting. It expressed appreciation to personnel who against all odds carried out their onerous responsibility of reporting the cases. The Committee called on all stakeholders to join hands with WAEC in curbing this national malaise.

Furthermore, the Committee considered statistics of entries and results of the May/June 2007 WASSCE in Nigeria, Chief Examiners’ Reports on the November/December 2007 WASSCE, and a report on the activities of the Aptitude Tests Department of the Council for the period between November 2007 and March 2008.

The Committee noted that WAEC had the capacity to generate and conduct quality aptitude tests for corporate bodies and other organizations. It, therefore, deemed it desirable to encourage all organizations, including government parastatals, educational institutions, etc, to patronize the services of the Council’s Aptitude Test Department.

The Committee noted the observation contained in the Chief Examiners’ Reports that the papers for the November/December 2007 WASSCE were of comparable standard with those of the previous years. The questions were said to be straight forward and devoid of ambiguity. The marking schemes were also said to be exhaustive and the rubrics explicit.

Members further noted the report that candidates’ performance was “good” in Visual Art 3, Arabic 2, Building Construction 1, Government 2, Economics 2, Commerce 2, Financial Accounting 2, Typewriting, Shorthand, Clothing & Textiles 2, Physical Education 2 and Woodwork 1 in the November/December 2007 WASSCE.

They however, expressed concern over the poor performance of candidates in Geography 1B, Geography 2, Visual Art 1, Music 1A, Literature-In-English 2&3, among other papers.

The Committee noted the report by the Chief Examiners that candidates’ strengths in English Language 1 included the ability to write essays of considerable length as required by the questions. In General Mathematics and Further Mathematics, candidates reportedly performed better in the sections that contained the short questions.

Similarly, the Committee noted that the Chief Examiners attributed the candidates’ weaknesses to several factors which included poor knowledge of the recommended texts, poor grammatical structures, illegible handwriting, inadequate preparation towards the examination, inadequate coverage of the syllabus, spelling errors, poor understanding of the demands of the questions as well as poor communication and quantitative skills.

In order to improve candidates’ performance in subsequent examinations, the Committee agreed with the following recommendations of the Chief Examiners:

The Committee observed with dismay the inadequate utilization of the Council’s Chief Examiner’s Reports which are part of the Council’s laudable efforts aimed at assisting schools and candidates to prepare for the WASSCE. It, therefore, directed the National Office to make it compulsory for each recognized school to acquire at least two copies of the Chief Examiners’ Reports and make available the report on each subject to the relevant teachers in the school.

The Committee commended the National Office for the usual prompt release of results and printing of certificates. It advised all institutions of higher learning and employers of labour to demand the original WASSCE certificates from their students or employees one year after the release of the results.