Gentlemen of the media, I am very pleased to be with you today to rub minds once again on issues concerning the development of the education sector in which we are all stakeholders and key participants.

Since my assumption of office as Head of National Office of WAEC, I have watched with appreciation the interest which most of you have consistently shown in the affairs of the Council. I am aware that your keen interest in our operations is fired by your commitment to the survival and growth of the education sector in Nigeria. You are also committed to the fulfillment of your social responsibility to your readers, audiences and the society at large. Despite these and other similarly vital commitments, you have refused to jettison your professional ethics and sense of fairness. Most of you have continued to show restraint, maturity and high sense of responsibility in your reports, even in the worst of situations as observed during the problems which threatened the conduct of the May/June 2008 WASSCE.

I wish to convey to you sincere appreciation from the Chairman, Registrar and the entire staff of the Council for the assistance you rendered by monitoring the conduct of the examination in some parts of the country. The reports which we received from you and those of our field officers nationwide have led us into new discoveries and given us adequate impetus to update some aspects of our operations. We had always realized your worth in our operations, but our thoughts have been further illuminated by your recent gesture. We have, therefore, come to the conclusion that our search for some individuals who will monitor our examinations and report back to us truthfully without compromising their personal integrity or our own standards should focus more on the Nigerian Union of Journalists. For this reason, we are already working out the modality for your deeper involvement in the conduct of the Council’s examinations in the years ahead.

Let me remind you, painfully though, that some papers of the May/ June 2008 WASSCE were compromised in Nigeria. Initially, Management believed that English Language paper I was the only paper which had gone into the wrong hands. In a swift reaction by Management, the paper was rescheduled and replaced. Subsequent reports from the field, however, cast serious doubts on the integrity of a few other papers some of which had already been conducted at the time. In line with Council’s policy and mode of operation, the matter was reported to the appropriate authorities and the security agencies. An in-house investigation panel was also set up to carry out full-scale investigation of the incident.

I wish to emphasize that all the papers which were suspected to have been compromised were replaced by the Council. I also want to reassure all stakeholders, including the candidates who sat the examination and their parents that no candidate has benefited in any way or suffered beyond the inconveniences of the rescheduling, as a result of the incident.

Gentlemen of the media, the remedial measures adopted by the Council after some papers of the May/June 2008 WASSCE had been compromised put a lot of pressure on the teachers who functioned as invigilators and supervisors in the examination. The Council wishes to use this opportunity to express profound gratitude to this group of patriotic Nigerians whose support and commitment did not wane throughout the period.

Similarly, the marking of the scripts was delayed for many weeks due to the strike action embarked upon by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) to press for certain demands. The quagmire generated a lot of anxiety among stakeholders in education, particularly our candidates who require the results for the processing of admission into tertiary institutions in the current year. Soon after the resolution of the problem, the Council called on the teachers who form the majority of the examiners that mark the scripts. They responded promptly and carried out the marking exercise at extra efforts as they had to also attend simultaneously to their primary assignments in their respective schools.

We commend these cherished examiners for their love for the Nigerian child and support to the Council. We commend the Federal and State governments for their magnanimity, the NUT for its high sense of responsibility and the stakeholders for their patriotic intervention which led to the quick resolution of the problem in the interest of peace, harmony and stability in the country.

Gentlemen of the media, the Council has continued to embark on various projects to enhance its service delivery to the good people of Nigeria. The Council commissioned an additional office block newly erected for Abeokuta Branch Office in July 2008. Many more projects, including ICT facilities, are in various stages of completion to ensure that the Council continues to cope with the ever-increasing candidature in Nigeria and does not fall short of stakeholders’ expectations in any aspect of its operations.

Gentlemen of the media, since the completion of the marking of scripts, officers of the Council have worked assiduously till this morning to ensure that the results are released on schedule. I am, therefore, very pleased to now announce to you the release of the results of the May/June 2008 WASSCE.

A total of 1,369,142 candidates entered for the examination in Nigeria. Out of this figure 1,136,387 candidates, representing 83%, have their full results released, while 232,755 candidates, representing 17%, have a few of their subjects still being processed, as various errors made by them are being corrected by the Council. The candidates committed some of these errors at the registration stage, while some were committed during the conduct of the examination.

Of the total number of candidates who sat the examination, 188,442 candidates, representing 13.76%, obtained credits and above in English Language, Mathematics and three other subjects, among them were 100,338 (7.32 %) male candidates and 88,104 (6.43 %) female candidates.

Further analysis of the results shows that 91,609 (6.69 %) candidates are Science oriented, 28,898 (2.11 %) candidates are Social Science oriented, while 67,935 (4.96 %) candidates are Arts biased.
 
The results of 74,956 (5.47 %) candidates are being investigated based on various reports of their alleged involvement in malpractice during the conduct of the examination. The reports of the malpractice cases and their exhibits have been compiled for presentation to the Nigeria Examinations Committee of the Council. The Committee’s decisions will be communicated to the affected candidates through the schools that presented them for the examination in due course.

Candidates who sat the examination will be able to check their results on the Council’s result-checking website: www.waecdirect.org, later today.

Gentlemen of the media, we are grateful for your attention.