FactCheck: The WAEC Initiative to Allow Students Resit WASSCE Papers as Early as January and February 2025 Does Not Apply to Nigerian Candidates
By Ajibola Osungbohun
Claim:
WAEC Initiative to allow students to resit for WASSCE papers as early as January includes Nigerian candidates.
Verdict:
False! The WAEC Initiative to allow students to resit for WASSCE papers as early as January and February 2025 does not apply to Nigeria candidates yet.
Full text:
As the new year began, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) introduced resit examinations for candidates. This news was posted by the University of Media Arts and Communication (UniMAC-GIJ) on the 2nd January 2025, that WAEC has announced a new initiative allowing students to resit their WASSCE papers as early as January and February 2025, stating that it’s a shift from the previous system, where candidates had to wait for the Nov/Dec cycle.
West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was Established in 1952 with the vision to be a world-class examining body that adds value to the educational goals of its stakeholders. It is responsible for determining examinations required in the public interest in West Africa, conducting such examinations, and awarding certificates to students in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra-Leon, The Gambia and Liberia.
Over the years, there have been records of mass failure in which most time students are affected in one subject or two and re-enrolled and resit for all subjects.
However, news has been widely spread across all social media and media organisations in Nigeria here, here, and here and there has been positive reaction from people who believe it a great development from WAEC. Find the link here and here.
Hence, with this excitement, we understand that we are in a society where misinformation is the other of the day and people are so quick to break news and also spread information on social media like WhatsApp, X and Facebook to chase clout. FactCheckAfrica went ahead to check the veracity.
Verification
A tweet by the National Orentation Agency, Nigeria (NOA) debunked the already widely spread news quoting the Head of Public Affairs at the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapi that the policy does not yet apply to Nigeria. Only candidates from Ghana, one of the sub-regional members of WAEC can benefit from the new policy.
Corroborating the above finding, we found out that on the X handle of WAEC Nigeria @waecnigeria, it has also debunked that the news circulating, about WAEC conducting a “resit examination” for candidates, is not applicable to Nigerian candidates.
CONCLUSION:
From the research made so far it has been revealed that the information circulating as regards the introduction of allowing students to resit for any failed subjects done in the previous year rather than writing everything again was true. However, it is not yet available for Nigerian students.
