WAEC to delay WASSCE results release, tertiary admissions to 2025
The Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) following the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) delay in the 2024 WASSCE results release says this year’s tertiary admissions will likely be shifted to the next academic year.
In a social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com, the Executive Director of EduWatch, Kofi Asare attributed the 2024 tertiary admissions delay to GH¢170 million owed to the not-for-profit-making organization by the government.
He quizzed why the central government made the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates free under the Free Senior High School (Free SHS) for students if it has no cash to afford it.
“If you don’t have the cash to afford free WASSCE for rich & poor students, why add it to the free SHS burden? That GH170m we are unable to pay is pushing both 2024 WASSCE results & 2024 tertiary admissions to 2025,” he stated.
His comment comes after the management of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) said its inability to release the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results is due to financial challenges.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Head of Public Affairs at WAEC, John Kapi explained that the WASSCE for School results remain unavailable due to unresolved financial obligations owed to technicians responsible for maintaining critical equipment needed for the examination process.
“The results are not ready. We issued a statement earlier highlighting some of the challenges we are currently facing. Unfortunately, these challenges persist because we have not been able to secure the necessary funds to address them,” Mr Kapi said during the interview.
The West African Examinations (WAEC) spokesperson also attributed the delay in this year’s WASSCE results release to the malfunctioning of specialised scanners essential for marking objective questions in the WASSCE.
John Kapi disclosed that technicians tasked with repairing the equipment have suspended their services due to an outstanding debt of GH₵25 million owed to them by the management of the West African Examinations Council.
“We needed to repair our scanners because we owe the technicians GH¢25 million and they have withdrawn their services until we make some financial commitments.
Private schools pay their fees but the government pays for candidates in public schools, and so until the monies are paid, we are unable to release the results,” the WAEC spokesman told the Accra-based Citi FM.
WAEC on August 5, 2024, commenced the administration of the 2024 edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates and ended it on Friday, September 20, 2024.
A total of 460,611 candidates made up of 212,954 boys and 247,657 girls, presented by 1,003 second-cycle schools registered for the examination. The 2024 WASSCE for School was administrated at 1,000 centres across the country.
