The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has disclosed that candidates who wrote this year’s May June West African Senior School Certificate Examination(WASSCE) and whose results have just been released can now start to print out the digital copies of their certificates alongside their statement of results pending three months time when the same will be sent as hard copies to their respective schools for collection.
Head of the National Office of WAEC Nigeria, Mr Patrick Areghan, made the disclosure at a news conference to announce the release of the results at the council’s headquarters in Lagos.
A total of 1,613,733 candidates sat the examination, out of which 1,287,920 (representing 79.81%) obtained credits and above in at least five mandatory subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, which is a marginal increase from that 76.36% last year.
Furthermore, aside from candidates from eight states, including Niger, that are indebted to WAEC and whose results are being withheld, a total of 262,803 others (representing 16. 29%) of the total number of candidates equally have their results being withheld for investigation over alleged cases of exam malpractice during the exam.
Speaking further, Areghan said WAEC came up with copies of digital certificates for the first time in its 71 years old history to make its operations more customers friendly in tandem with the 21st Century practice.
Explaining the process, he said all that is required is for candidates to log onto the council’s website, given as www.waec.org, using details on their Smart Identity Cards, which they used during the exam to complete the process.
He said though the process would cost them a token fee, the candidates can as well share their certificates with institutions online and have their certificates confirmed or verified by any institution or organisation, using the same method.
Areghan noted that candidates would certainly be happy and prefer to make use of the new method as it not only saves time, is cost-effective, and is convenient, but it will also save them from the risks and stress associated with road transport in the country.
He said with the digital certificates, candidates may not need to travel down to their schools to collect the hardcopies or may do so at a convenient time while they can easily process the same online anywhere they are global.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
