The registration fees for school candidates of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), has been increased.
The fee was hiked from N13,950 to N18,000 starting from 2022.
This was disclosed on Monday by the Head of National Office (HNO) for West African Examination Council, Mr Patrick Areghan, while announcing the release of the results of the 2021 WASSCE in Lagos State.
Areghan ascribed the increment to unabating spiral inflation in the country, worsened devastating effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“As can be seen, in the general cost of doing business and the multiplier effect of insecurity in the country which have consequential effects on the cost of our operations, it is no longer possible to continue to provide services with the current fee of N13,950 per candidate.
“We have received approval from the appropriate quarters with effect from the WASSCE for School Candidates 2022 to charge N18,000 per candidate.
“We are, therefore, asking all schools principals to collect N18,000 per candidate for registration.
“Any amount beyond this ceiling will not be to our consent or knowledge and will definitely not come to the purse of the West African Examinations Council,” Areghan warned.
The WAEC boss noted that a part of the new fees would go into remunerations enhancement for the various examination functionaries with effect from 2022 as approved by the council’s Governing Board.
Areghan who gave the breakdown of the 2021’s WASSCE, said a total of 1,573,849 candidates registered for the examination from the 19,425 recognized secondary schools in the country.
He added that out of the registered candidates, 1,560,261 actually sat for the examination and results of 1,256,990 candidates were fully processed and released, while 303,271 others were still being processed due to some unresolved issues.
The WAEC boss further continued that efforts were being made to speedily complete the processing to enable all the affected candidates to get their results fully processed and released within the next week.
“The analysis of the statistics of the performance of candidates in the examination shows that out of the 1,560,261 candidates that sat for the examination, 1,398,370, representing 89.62 percent, obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects, that is, with or without English Language and/ or Mathematics.
“A total of 1,274,784 others, representing 81.7 percent obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.
“Of this number, 630,138, that is, 49.43 per cent, are male candidates, while 644,646, that is, 50.57 percent, are female candidates,” he said.
According to WAEC, there is an appreciable 16.46 percent improvement in the performance of those who obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, which was 65.24 percent for 2020 WASSCE.
