AN APPRAISAL OF CANDIDATES’ ACHIEVEMENT IN THE WEST AFRICAN SENIOR SCHOOLCERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (WASSCE) AMONG WAEC MEMBER

COUNTRIES

BY

MULIKAT A. BELLO (ALHAJA, MRS.) Registrar/CEO

WAEC HQ, Accra

AND

DR. (MRS). M. G. OKE Deputy Registrar WAEC HQ, Lagos

1

ABSTRACT

The West African Senior School Certificate Examination

(WASSCE) is the international examination conducted by the West

African Examinations Council. It is presently written by

candidates in four of the member countries. The examination

therefore provides data for the comparison of students’

achievement in the sub-region. This paper takes a look at the trend

in entries and performance of candidates in some selected subjects

in the WASSCE. The implications of the trend as they relate to

access and quality of education in the sub-region are discussed.

Policy issues for educational advancement in the sub-region are

highlighted and recommendations for improved performance

made.

2

1. INTRODUCTION

Education is an instrument for national development. This is because it is the instrument

used in developing the citizens who in turn contribute to the development of the nation.

According to Afolabi (2010), the quality of a nation’s education determines the quality of the

products of its education system and by extension the quality and quantity, pace and level of

its development. This is probably why every nation tends to invest more in getting their

populace educated. However, the integrity of the entire educational system depends, to a

large extent, on the quality of its assessment practices.

Assessment is a major tool employed in the process of appraising candidates’ achievement; it

plays a major role in the educational process or development. It helps to ascertain the extent

to which the educational policy is successful and could also be a sort of quality control for

checking the educational policy vis-à-vis the curriculum. Educational assessment is therefore

the totality of the processes involved in making valid judgments about what behavioral

characteristics and changes a learner has acquired through the process of teaching and

learning.

Examination (internal or external) is a frequently used assessment tool which provides

indices of students’ achievement. Gronlund (1971), described evaluation as systematic

processes of determining the extent to which instructional objectives are achieved by

students. Therefore, the success or failure of an educational practice could be decided to a

large extent by the degree of students’ achievements. This paper therefore takes a look at the

trend of candidates’ performance at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination

(WASSCE) among the WAEC member countries, implications for the noticeable trend and

recommendations made for improved performance

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2. TREND OF CANDIDATES’ ENTRY FOR THE MAY/JUNE WASSCE

Figures I to IV illustrate the trends of entries in WASSCE in four of the WAEC member

countries for the subjects between 2006 and 2010. However, Ghana did not present

candidates for the examination in 2010.

Figure I: Candidates’ Entries in Ghana

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

English 122618 134033 136934 158001

Mathematics 122618 134015 136913 157974

Government 30173 35365 37941 38077

Economics 69309 77431 80116 80359

H/Mgmt 11375 12631 12347 12347

Chemistry 24032 26281 26708 26724

2006 2007 2008 2009

Figure I shows that there was an upward trend in English Language, Mathematics,

Government, Economics and Chemistry during the period under consideration. While for

Home Management, there was an upward trend till 2007. The trend shows a considerable

increase in the entries for all the subjects except Home Management.

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Figure II: Candidates’ Entries in Nigeria

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

English 1170523 1270137 1292910 1373009 1331381

Mathematics 1170523 1270136 1292890 1373009 1331374

Government 726343 792019 824097 861390 805298

Economics 1114065 1207613 1230131 1298733 1256886

H/Mgmt 18556 19634 19960 22875 24015

Chemistry 389462 432230 428513 478235 477573

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Figure II shows an increase in entries for the examination up to the year 2009 in English

Language, Mathematics, Government and Economics. While there was a steady increase in

entries for the years under review in Home Management. On the other hand the trend in the

entries in Chemistry was not steady.

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Figure III: Candidates’ Entries in The Gambia

0

1000

2000

3000

40005000

6000

7000

8000

9000

English 6358 7383 8145 8052 7908

Mathematics 6358 7383 8145 8052 7908

Government 2611 3193 6308 3526 3417

Economics 3967 4106 4439 4455 4593

H/Mgmt 93 125 139 158 119

Chemistry 517 626 713 656 749

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Figure III indicates that there was an upward trend in candidates’ entries in The Gambia for

English Language and Mathematics from 2006 to 2009. However, the entries dropped in

2010. The trend for Economics was upward for the period, while those of Government,

Home Management and Chemistry were not steady.

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Figure IV: Candidates’ Entries in Sierra-Leone

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

English 16165 18578 23947 29244 35341

Mathematics 16140 18578 23947 29244 35341

Government 6150 7114 9429 11088 14110

Economics 12453 13807 17517 20980 25588

H/Mgmt 827 1248 1404 1789 2085

Chemistry 4204 4499 5224 6042 6418

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Figure IV shows a positive trend in entries for all the subjects under review in Sierra Leone

3. TRENDS OF CANDIDATES’ PERFORMANCE IN MAY/JUNE WASSCE

Figures V to X illustrate the trend of candidates’ performance in May/June WASSCE in

WAEC member countries using the percentage of candidates that had credit and above in the

selected subjects. However Ghana did not present candidates for the examination in 2010.

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Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May /June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in English Language

Figure V shows that less than 50% of the candidates who sat the examination in each year in

all the countries had credit and above (A1 – C6) in English Language. The percentage of

candidates who had credit in the subject ranged from 3.07 to 49.3. There was a downward

trend in performance in all the countries. The Gambia had the least percentage of candidates

who had credit and above in each year. On the other hand, Nigeria had the highest percentage

of candidates who had credit and above in 2006, 2007 and 2010 while Ghana had the highest

percentage in 2008 and 2009.

Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May /June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in

Mathematics

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Figure VI shows that less than 58% of the candidates had credit and above (A1 – C6) in

Mathematics in all the countries during the period under consideration. In addition, the trend

of performance was unsteady in all the countries.

Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May/June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in Government

Figure VII shows that less than 68% of the candidates had credit and above (A1 – C6) in

Government in all the countries during the period under consideration. The trend of

candidates’ performance from 2008 was downward in all the other countries except Sierra

Leone where the trend in candidates’ performance was unsteady.

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Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May /June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in Economics

Figure VIII shows that less than 57% of the candidates had credit and above (A1 – C6) in

Economics in all the countries during the period under consideration. The trend of

performance fluctuated in all the countries throughout the period.

Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May /June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in Chemistry

10

Figure IX shows that in Nigeria candidates’ performance at the credit level was consistently

the highest for the period under review in Chemistry. On the other hand, Sierra-Leone had

the least percentage of candidates who had credit and above throughout the years under

consideration.

Trends of Candidates’ Performance in May /June 2006 to 2010 WASSCE in Home Management

Figure X reveals that the percentage of candidates who had credit and above range in Home

Management for the period under review was highest in Nigeria except for the year 2009

where Ghana had the highest percentage of candidates’ performance in the subject. On the

other hand, except for 2006, Sierra-Leone had the least percentage of candidates who had

credit and above in the subject.

It could generally be observed that performance of candidates in WASSCE in the sub region

in the subjects and for the period reviewed was not quite impressive except in Government

where most of the candidates in Nigeria had credits and above. Performance of candidates in

English Language and Mathematics in WSSCE in the sub-region was low. This calls for

concern as these are core subjects for admission into tertiary institutions.

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4. CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATION

This paper has looked at the trend in entries and performance of candidates in some subjects

in the WASSCE among the four member countries of WAEC. It was observed generally that

performance was not impressive especially in the core subjects (English Language and

Mathematics) that are requirements for tertiary education. It is therefore recommended that

policies and strategies to improve candidates’ performance in WASSCE should be put in

place by the Governments of the various countries so that access to and quality of education

in the sub-region could be sustained. This might possibly improve the overall development of

each country.

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REFERENCES

Afolabi, O.A. (2010). Opening Address at the National Examination Summit held at the National Universities Commission (NUC). Abuja, Nigeria.

Bello M. A., Kolajo, A. J., & Uduh, C. A. O. (2010). Managing Examination Crisis in Nigeria:

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC)’S Experience. Journal of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa Volume 4. Pg. 32-32.

Gronlund, N.E. (1971). Educational Tests and Measurements. 2nd edition, Macmillan 1971

(New York), xiv, 545 p. LB3051 .G74 1971. 102-008-104. WAEC (2006). Comparative Study of the Performance of The Gambian, Nigerian and

Sierra-Leonean Candidates at the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) between 2002 – 3004.