The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it withheld a total of 365,564 results of candidates who sat for its 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
It said a total of the 1,607,981 candidates registered for the examination from 20,222Â recognized secondary schools across the country, but only 1,601, 047 sat for the test.
The council’s Head of National Office (HNO), Patrick Areghan, announced details of the examination results on Monday, in Lagos.
He said the withheld results related to various reported cases of examination malpractice.
According to him, the number of seized results represents 22.83 per cent, making it 11.74 per cent higher than the 10.9 per cent recorded in the same examination diet in 2021.
Areghan said the students’ lack of zeal to learn was largely responsible for the development.
The HNO said the council would continue to sanction all cases of examination malpractice.
He said that schools, supervisors, teachers and candidates perpetrating the evil act were not helping the education system.
Areghan said all hands must be on deck to check the ugly trend.
He said that the increasing use of cell phones in the examination hall, in spite of the existing ban, and organised cheating in some schools were other nagging issues.
The WAEC boss said that the examination was also administered to candidates from some schools in Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary school was being used.
Giving a further breakdown of statistics of the results, Areghan said that, of the total 1,601, 047 candidates who sat for the examination, 1,713 of them had varying degrees of special needs.