The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has presented awards of excellence and prizes to two Nigerian students and one Ghanian, whose performances were outstanding in the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The examination was written in five west African countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
The examination body also presented the Augustus Bamidele Oyediran prize to Lumen Christi International High School, Uromi, Edo State, for producing the best aggregate results for school candidates in the 2021 exams.
Lumen Christi International High School has won the award six times since 2007. It won the award in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2021.
WAEC also conferred the Distinguished Friend of the Council award on Pai Obanya, an emeritus professor, who was a chairman of the examination body, and Alex Mowete, a professor, for their “selfless service to the council and the West African child.”
Both Mr Obanya and Mr Mowete had served the examination body in different capacities where Mr Mowete was said to have in 2013, silently “stopped accepting remunerations for assignments which you undertake for WAEC.”
The presentation of prizes and awards was part of the 70th Annual Council Meeting of WAEC held at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Tuesday.
The overall winners of the International Excellence Awards for the regional examination were Nweze Chinasa, 18, from Lagoon School Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria; Asante Brako, 18, from Presbyterian Boy’s Senior High School, Ghana; and Edeani Godswill, 18, from Airforce Comprehensive School, Agbani, Enugu, Nigeria; as first, second and third, respectively.
The total T-score for the candidates, who all had A1 in at least 8 subjects, was 606.8766 for Miss Chinasa, 600.9987 for Master Asante and 598.1588 for Master Edeani.
The Nigerian National Distinction/Merit Award for Nigeria was also presented to Nweze Chinasa, from Lagoon School Lekki, Lagos state; Edeani Godswill from Airforce Comprehensive School, Agbani, Enugu state and Unini Chiemerie, 17, of Christ the King College, Gwagwalada, Abuja, as first, second and third respectively in Nigeria.
The students were presented with cash prizes of N400,000, N360,000 and N300,000 respectively.
The Nigerian Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said it is time for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to start preparing for the challenges and opportunities coming with the next 70 years.
He said the challenges the examination body will be facing in the next decades would be different from what it has been facing in the past.
“With 70 years behind us, it is now time to benign to prepare for the next 70 years, and it is clear that these coming decades will come with vastly different challenges and opportunities,” he said.
“There are at least three issues that present new challenges and of course opportunities. The first is the African free continental free trade agreement and its implications for the growth of institutions, the second is the WAEC curriculum, teaching and examinations relevant to the 21st century needs and the third is the role of technology in the work of WAEC,” he added.WAEC presents awards to outstanding students
Mr Osinbajo spoke at the 70th anniversary and the opening ceremony of the annual meeting of the council. He said the body has in the past 70 years shown its resilience by the challenges it has faced and how it solved them.
He said: “WAEC deserves commendation for being the only sub-regional organisation established in the colonial era in anglophone West Africa that has not only survived the pool of centrifugal forces of the post-independence era but has also continued to wax stronger.”
The vice-president who congratulated the examination body on its platinum anniversary noted that “WAEC’s contribution goes beyond that of just an examination body to that of promoting sustainable human resource capacity, integration and cooperation of west African states.”
Speaking, the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, assured WAEC of the Nigerian government’s support of its initiatives to end the menace of examination malpractices.
Earlier, in his welcome address, the chairman of the examination council, Ato Essuman, a professor, decried that the increasing sophistication of practitioners of examination malpractice has remained a source of worry to the body.
He said: “It has been revealed that some of our examination candidates use highly sophisticated scanners and hearing devices, concealed in glasses to obtain external assistance during examinations.
“Examination body should not be left alone to fight this menace because they can’t. It requires collaboration with stakeholders in education and government to address this menace.”
Mr Essuman said: “Our education system should therefore focus, among others, on moral education, love for country, issues about integrity to change the mindset and bring attitudinal change among the entire citizens.”
He appreciated the Nigerian government for its support and prompt payment of its dues to the WAEC headquarters, noting that Nigeria was the first country in 2020 and 2021 to pay the examination body.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
