The West African Examination Council revealed on Monday that 81.7 per cent of students who sat for the Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examination in 2021 had credits in five subjects including Maths and English.

Giving a breakdown of this year’s examination, WAEC Head of National Office, Patrick Areghan, said a total of 1,573,849 candidates registered for the examination from the 19,425 recognised secondary schools in the country.

Of the registered candidates, 1,560,261 actually sat for the examination and results of 1,256,990 candidates were fully processed and released, while 303,271 others were still being processed due to some unresolved issues.

The WAEC boss said that efforts were being made to speedily complete the processing to enable all the affected candidates to get their results fully processed and released within the next one week.

“The analysis of the statistics of the performance of candidates in the examination shows that out of the 1,560,261 candidates that sat for the examination, 1,398,370, representing 89.62 per cent, obtained credit and above in a minimum of any five subjects, that is, with or without English Language and/ or Mathematics.

“A total of 1,274,784 others, representing 81.7 per cent obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics.

“Of this number, 630,138, that is, 49.43 per cent, are male candidates, while 644,646, that is, 50.57 per cent, are female candidates,” he said.

According to WAEC, there is an appreciable 16.46 per cent improvement in performance of those who obtained credit and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics, which was 65.24 per cent for 2020 WASSCE.

He added that the examination was also administered to candidates from schools in Benin Republic and Vote D’Ivoire, where the Nigerian curriculum for senior secondary schools are used.

The HNO noted that results of 170,146 candidates were, however, being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.