Over 1.5 million candidates to sit for 2020 WASSCE – WAEC

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) on Tuesday announced that a total of 1,549,463 candidates have registered for the diet from 19,129 schools out of which 786,421 are males and 763,042 are females.

This was disclosed by the Head of the Nigeria National Office of WAEC, Mr. Patrick Areghan while briefing newsmen on the preparation of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

According to him, A total of One Million Five Hundred and Forty Nine Thousand Four Hundred and Sixty Three (1,549, 463) candidates have registered for the diet from 19,129 schools out of which 786,421 are males and 763,042 are females.

“The choice of the period (August 3rd to September 5th, 2020) for the conduct of the examination was not arbitrarily set”, he said.

The HNO emphasized that schools must make provisions for facemasks and sanitizer and other personal equipment needed.

“All examination functionaries, including the Council’s staff on distribution; Supervisors; Invigilators, Inspectors; candidates and school officials will be required to wear face masks, wash and sanitize their hands daily and throughout the duration of the examination.

The HNO maintained that WAEC consulted extensively with the governments of all the five member countries before arriving at the period and duration of the examination.

In deference to the Federal Government of Nigeria, the five-week arrangement was arrived at in order to make room for the other Examining Bodies to equally conduct their examinations in good time.

He said the shortening of the period is also of advantage in terms of reducing the period of mass social interaction with its attendant consequences.

The HNO assured that during the waiting period, “we continued to fine tune and perfect all arrangements for the smooth and successful conduct of the examination and I am happy to inform you that we are set to conduct the examination in Nigeria.

“I must not fail to warn all schools and candidates to shun any form of examination malpractice. Lack of preparedness is not an excuse to cheat. For the benefit of doubt, standards already set remain sacrosanct. Do not delude yourself by thinking that they will be lowered due to the prevailing circumstances.

“The Final International Timetable has been sent to all the WAEC Zonal and Branch Offices for onward dispatch to schools and Federal and State Ministries of Education”, he added.

WAEC promised to make Timetable available tomorrow, Wednesday for schools.