The West African Examination Council (WAEC), has said that the marginal increase of the registration fees for its examination from N13, 950 to N18, 000 was caused by spiral inflation being witnessed in Nigeria.

The Council, however, pledged to continue to improve on its service delivery, assuring that the just concluded 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will be released within 45 days after the conduct of the last paper as is the practice of the council.

The examination body made the disclosure when the Chairman of Council, Professor Ato Essuman, led his team on a courtesy visit to the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu on Thursday in Abuja.

The Council has also solicited the support of the Federal Government to procure the outstanding printing machine to help the council in its service delivery. The machine is estimated to cost $3.9 million.

Essuman said that the building and all the external works had been completed, adding that three of the machines had already been purchased.

He, however, said that the outstanding machine which cost 3.9 million dollars needed to be procured to enable the council to achieve its mandate of conducting effective examinations.

“As a responsible and responsive organisation, the council is always seeking ways of improving on its service delivery to stakeholders. The Nigeria National Office embarked on the establishment of a Digital Printing Press for the printing of examination security materials, the first to be owned by the council in Nigeria.

“However, the project, which is nearing completion, has been stalled because we are not able to fund the acquisition of a particular machine that is vital to the operation of the system.

“I wish therefore to use this privilege extended to me today to request your kind intervention to enable us to secure the required financial assistance for the procurement of the machine,” he said.

Essuman said that in the 70 years of WAEC’s existence, Nigeria stood out in the comity of member nations not only in the discharge of its obligations but also in the enthusiasm and promptness with which most of the obligations were discharged.

He, therefore, thanked the government and people of Nigeria, for the support, cooperation and goodwill, which WAEC had received from its inception in 1952 to date.

The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, promised to do his best to make sure that the Nigerian government support the council in achieving its mandate.

Head, Nigeria National Office, WAEC, Mr Patrick Areghan, during a visit to one of the Council’s marking centres, in Abuja, said there had been a marginal increase in WAEC fees because of the country’s spiral inflation.

Areghan said that the conversion of naira to dollar today was a misery saying that the upward review of fees was necessary to enable the council to render its services efficiently to the Nigerian child.

“There has to be that marginal increase to enable us to do better services. The examiners are now happy as we are able to increase their marking fees through this marginal increase.

“The money actually went for the payment of examiners to enable us to satisfy them so that they can do the job better,” he said.

He said that each candidate registering for the examinations now has to pay N18,000 as against the former N13,950.

On whether the council was planning to introduce the Computer Based Test (CBT) in the conduct of its examinations, Areghan said CBT would only be achieved if the government provided the required facilities to enable it to conduct such examinations.

He said that WAEC conducts examinations for over 20,000 secondary schools in the country, and in 76 subjects and as such would be difficult to use CBT for its examinations knowing fully well that a candidate could offer as low as eight subjects.

In the same vein, Registrar of Council, Mr Pateh Bah, expressed satisfaction with works carried out by examiners in the centre for prompt release of its results.

Bah said that the examiners had worked within the time limit of 45 days to which examination results would be released. (Nigerian Tribune)

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