By S. Siapha Mulbah
The national office of the West Africa Examination Council in Liberia has released the provisional results for candidates that sat the 2023 West African Secondary School Certificate Exam (WASSCE), with 94.06 percent of the participants eligible for certification.
Of the 49,842 candidates that sat the regional examination from 886 schools across the country, 46,448 students obtained passes.
Releasing the results yesterday at the WAEC Liberia head office in Monrovia, Dale Gbotoe, the Head of the institution, disclosed that the recent results show that the comparative reports of the exam in the last three years have fluctuated, based on individual candidates’ performances in the different categories.
According to him, many of the students that wrote the exams experienced challenges in the basic categories, like Literature-in-English and English language, which perhaps impeded the list of candidates qualified to receive certificates. 43,432 students sat Literature-in-English as a subject in the exams, but only 13,691 of them were successful, constituting 31.52 percent.
The other challenging category of the 2023 WASSCE exam was English Language, with just 33.79 percent of the 47,358 students who sat for the subject making passes.
On average, for the 2023 WASSCE, the pass percentages for other subjects are as follows: Biology 89.99 percent, Mathematics 82.43 percent, Geography 81.99 percent, and Economics 80.32 percent.
Results per county released by the WAEC Liberia office have that nearly all counties that administered the exam have over 75% of their students that passed and are eligible to be awarded certificates.
Rivercess and Grand Gedeh counties obtained the highest percentages of all among the 15 counties. Rivercess got 98.63 percent of her students that passed, while Grand Gedeh came next with 98.03 percent.
The top four best performing candidates of the exams came from Montserrado and Margibi Counties. According to the WAEC Boss, the students in this category passed in at least five subject with credits.
He named Ford Madden Christian Academy and Dominion Christian Institute of Montserrado, and Saint Christopher Catholic School of Margibi County, as the schools from which four students topped the exams.
Student Desire E. Saygarn of Ford Madden Christian Academy topped the recognition list with an aggregated T. Score of 523.7493, as the highest scoring student of the exam.
She is followed by her schoolmate, Priscilla L. Cooper, who got an Aggregated T. Score of 516.9156. Dominion Christian Institute’s Lanford Zayzay emerged as the third best performing candidate during the test, with 509.0717 as his Aggregated T. Score.
Margibi County based Saint Christopher Catholic School placed the county in the recognition category through student Bernice T. Johnson. She got a Total Score of 356.5718.
The Council, through its National Head of Office, said the results of some 1,799 candidates that sat the exams have been withheld for involvement into four different types of examination malpractices.
He said 18 students were caught with phones during the test, 1,482 students were caught with foreign materials unacceptable in the testing halls, and 282 student were involved in irregular activities, while 17 assaulted or insulted examination workers.
Gbotoe also reported that 730 schools had their subject results withheld by the Council for collusion, which is another form of examination malpractice. Affected candidates in this category are 46,529.
WAEC however used the occasion to thank the Government of Liberia for the confidence reposed in them, with the regular testing activity and financial commitment over the years. He called on school administrators to continue their engagements with the students and further prepare them for the exams.
In remarks, the Minister of Education, D. Ansu Sonii, disclosed that the government is pleased with the continuous positive scores accumulated by students during the regional test every year, and called on all parents to assist the Ministry of Education in monitoring their children.
According to Minister Sonii, the fees of the examinations being paid by the government is to have the burden of financial cost lifted from the shoulders of parents, so that they can focus on Liberian students in other aspects. He recognized the efforts of the top candidates from the examination, and suggested that there could be future recognition programs held nationally to appreciate them for the hard studies done to top their counterparts.
