The West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) has clarified that the remedial examination recently discussed on a Ghana TV program is not a new development for Nigerian candidates. This clarification comes after some confusion regarding the announcement.
The Head of Public Affairs at WAEC John Kapi, addressed the matter in a televised interview on Tuesday, December 31. According to him, the concept of resitting for exams is not a new procedure but rather an extension of an existing practice, particularly for Nigerian candidates.
Amos Dangut, the Head of the Nigeria Office at the West African Examinations Council, explained to reporters on Monday that the option for Nigerian candidates to resit specific subjects has been in place for over six years. He emphasized that candidates who fail one or more subjects in their school exams are not required to retake the entire exam. Instead, they can sit for the private candidate exams, where they can retake only the subjects they failed.
Dangut further clarified that the February resit option discussed recently in Ghana is simply an extension of the current system for private candidates. “If a candidate has completed formal schooling and failed a subject or two, they are expected to sit for the private candidate exams,” he said. “This is not a new concept but part of the long-established structure for candidates to remedy their results.”
He added that while this resit option exists for private candidates, the rules for school candidates are different. After completing formal schooling, school candidates cannot retake the entire exam if they fail a subject. They must instead sit for the private candidate exam.
The development in Ghana, according to Dangut, is in response to growing demand for more opportunities for students to improve their results. However, for Nigerian candidates, this practice has been a standard part of the WAEC certification process for many years.
