SPECIAL REPORT
2012 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination results by states
By Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi
March 14, 2016
Details of the May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results from 2012 to 2014 have revealed an awesome level of failure worse than previously thought, among candidates across all the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Data obtained from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) established that out of the 1,671,183 candidates that sat for the examination in May/June 2012, only 4.84 percent made five effective credits. A combination of five subjects including Mathematics and the English Language is regarded as “effective” and is also compulsory for admission to any Nigerian tertiary institution.
A Social Science subject was included in this particular assessment.
Specifically, the data showed that only 4,183 or 21.4 percent of the 19, 528 candidates that sat for the examination in Bayelsa state in 2012, made a five effective credits Yet, even with this dismal performance, Bayelsa led the pack of 36 states and the FCT as the best overall result in 2012.
Edo state, which came second, had presented 60, 699 candidates, comprising 31,586 males and 29, 113 females. But only 9, 128 of them made five effective credits. Cross River, the third, presented 45, 253 candidates, made up of 24, 297 males and 20, 956 females. Only 13.5 of them made five credits.
Akwa Ibom, which came 4th, had a total of 65,494 candidates (32,492 males, 33,002 females). Just 11 percent of them made five effective credits. Delta finished 5th, with only 9.1 percent of its 55,560 candidates garnering five effective credits.
Kaduna, which presented 94, 049 candidates (54,905 males; 39,144 females), clinched the 8th position. Only 8,343 candidates or 8.8 percent of the total got the desired credits.
For Lagos, which had the highest number of candidates for 2012 – 142,788 (69,686 males; 73,102 females) – only 3,089 or 2.16 percent of them passed effectively. It was 19th on the list. Of Kano’s 64, 047 candidates (41,660 males; 22387 females), just 1,686 or 2.6 percent made five credits.
Surprisingly, Ondo and Ogun states did not fare any better. Ondo presented 48,044 candidates (24,977 males; 23,067 females), yet, only 1,280 or 2.6 percent made five credits. It ranked 16th among the states. For Ogun, which had 64, 629 candidates (32,558 males, 32,071 females), only 2,265 or 3.5 percent garnered five effective credits.
However, the worst of all was Ebonyi state, which clinched the unenviable 37th position. It presented 28,914 candidates (14,765 males; 14,149 females), but only 53 of them or 0.1 percent made five credits.
Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Borno and Bauchi states also performed far below expectation. Only 354 or 1.6 percent out of 21, 233 candidates (13,857 males; 7,376 females) presented by Gombe state made five credits.
Jigawa had 17,822 candidates (14,345 males; 3,477 females) but only 169 or 0.9 percent of them obtained five credits. For Katsina, out of 38,602 candidates (28,290 males; 10, 312 females), just 494 or 1.2 percent passed effectively. Kebbi had only 2.2 percent or 500 out of its 22,151 candidates (16,233 males; 5,918 females) obtaining five credits. Borno presented 34,782 candidates (21,069 males; 13,713 females), but only 458 or 1.3 percent of them made five credits. Bauchi had 25,598 candidates (17,476 males; 8,122 females). Just 462 or 1.8 percent of them made it.
2013 results, not any different
The overall performance remained the same in 2013. A total of 1, 670,250 candidates sat for the May/June examination across the 37 states including the FCT, but only 4.9 percent made five effective credits.
Ironically, the Bayelsa also led the pack this time despite its unimpressive performance, with only 3,071 or 16.5 percent of its 18, 521 candidates that sat for the examination obtaining five effective credits, which also included a social science subject.
Edo also maintained its second position. A total of 59, 902 candidates sat for the examination, out of which 9,176 or 15.3 percent made five credits. Cross River lived up to its third position too, with 6,024 or 12.9 percent of its 46, 453 candidates garnering five effective credits.
However, Kaduna snatched the fourth position from Akwa Ibom this time. A total of 96,442 candidates sat for the examination, but 10, 639 or 11 percent made five effective credits.
But Rivers and Delta switched positions. The former came fifth with 6,642 or 10.1 percent of its 65, 210 candidates making five effective credits. The latter settled for the sixth position, with 4,458 or 9.2 percent of its 48,288 candidates obtaining five credits.
Not suprisingly, Ebonyi retained its 37th position among the states, as it did 2012. It presented 28,137 candidates and only 45 or 0.1 percent made five credits in the relevant subjects.
Same story in 2014
It’s still Bayelsa in the first position in the 2014 May/June WASSCE. Kaduna came second, Rivers third, while Kogi, surprisingly, clinched the fourth position. But nothing to cheer about still. Only 3,092 or 15.5 percent of the 19,918 candidates that wrote the examination in Bayelsa made five credits.
For Kaduna, 100,344 candidates sat for the examination, but only 7,611 or 7.5 percent made five credits.
Rivers presented 64,349 candidates but only 2,616 or 4.06 percent accumulated five credits.
In Kogi’s case, 1,725 or 4.01 percent of the 42,997 candidates that sat for the examination made five credits.
Of course, Ebonyi maintained its 37th position with only 38 or 0.14 percent of its 25,437 candidates obtaining five credits.
2015, a different ballgame
Last year however recorded a significant improvement, although, a social science subject was not included in the assessment. Abia state, which was nowhere among the best 10 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 came first this time, with 33,762 or 63.9 percent of its 52, 801 candidates obtaining five effective credits.
Another outsider, Anambra, which also did not feature among the best 10 in the three previous years, came second. It presented 46,385 candidates, out of which 28,379 or 61.18 percent made five credits.
Edo, which came 2nd in 2012, 2013 and 7th in 2014, clinched the 3rd position, with 38, 052 or 61.05 out of its 62, 327 candidates making five credits.
Rivers and Imo, which came 4th and 5th respectively, had more than 50 percent of their candidates making five credits.
But all the other states had 40 percent or less of their total number of candidates getting five credits. Lagos, which finished 6th on the table, presented 141, 963 candidates, but just 68,173 or 48.02 percent made five credits.
Bayelsa, which led the pack in 2012, 2013 and 2014, clinched the 7th position this time, with 9, 367 or 47. 97 percent of its 19,525 candidates obtaining five credits.
About 11 states at the bottom of the table, that had less than 20 percent of their candidates obtaining five credits included Niger (19.66%), Adamawa (18.08), Osun (18.03), Sokoto (15.35), Bauchi (15.06), Kebbi (12.08), and Katsina.
But the worst group of all, with less than 10 percent of their candidates making five credits, were Gombe (7.4%), Jigawa (6.37), Zamfara (6.23) and Yobe (4.37).
The Unity Colleges
Full details of the country’s 104 Federal Government Colleges’ WASSCE results also revealed some interesting facts. Overall, only 44 of them produced candidates that made five effective credits.
Top on the list, with 99.14 pass rate was the Federal Government Girls’ College (FGGC), Benin City, Edo State. A total of 232 students sat for the examination, and 230 made five effective credits and above.
The FGGC, Kazaure came second. One hundred and five students took the examination, 103 or 98.10 percent of them obtained five credits.
The FGC, Rubochi clinched the third position, with 146 or 93.59 percent out of the 156 candidates that wrote the examination making five effective credits.
In 20 colleges, between 90 and 99.14 percent of the candidates that sat for the examination made five effective credits and above; in seven colleges, between 80 and 87.34 percent; in seven others including King’s Colleges, between 71 and 79.87 percent; while in 12 colleges, between 60 and 69 percent of the candidates had five credits and above. In eight additional colleges, between 51 and 59 percent made it.
The FGGC, Ipetumodu led the pack of those where less than 50 percent of the total number made it. The college came close, though, with 57 or 48.72 percent out of its 117 presented candidates obtaining five credits.
Ten colleges, including Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos fell into the category where between 40 and 48.72 percent of their candidates had five effective credits. In five colleges, between 30 and 37.33 percent made it; while in nine colleges, between 22.06 and 29.29 percent of their candidates passed. Some of the traditionally good colleges that fell under this unenviable group included FGGC, Oyo, Akure and Sagamu.
As if that was not bad enough, 11 colleges had only between 11.24 and 19.51 of their candidates making five credits. In 17 colleges, only between 1.2 and 9.7 percent of their candidates passed. The worst of all was a group of eight colleges, where no single candidate made five credits. They included: FGC, Buni-Yadi, FGGC, Bojoga, Gombe state; FGGC, Bauchi; FGGC, Gboko; FGGC, Potiskum; Federal Science & Technical College, Michika; FSTC, Kafanchan and FSTC, Lassa.
