The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has been posting conflicting results of the 2011 Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) it just released, LEADERSHIP investigations reveal.
Candidates are in a state of confusion as they have continued to download different results. According to them, the results varied from the earlier version released by WAEC, a situation some attributed to an attempt by the examination body to raise the scores, as it has been widely criticised for mass failure.
Chekwube Silvia, a candidate, who had been unlucky because of the difficulty she experienced in checking her result, told our reporter that she had not been able to check the results and that she was shocked to hear that there are variations in the results of candidates.
She explained that her classmate, Chidinma, had downloaded different results on two occasions. The second result differed from the former, and the young girl could not understand what was going on.
Another candidate who pleaded anonymity also said he got three conflicting results. He said, “The original one I got was five distinctions, two credits and one outstanding. The second was six distinctions and two credits and the last one was seven distinctions, and one outstanding, and by the time I went back to check again, it has reverted to the old result.”
On how he felt on realising the variations, he said, “It is really very confusing because all of a sudden you are getting something different. It was general because even many of my friends had the same experience.
“I think the examination body is losing credibility. Because of what has happened, many people will lose confidence in WAEC because its credibility has been battered,” he said.
Reacting to the development, an official of WAEC told LEADERSHIP that the problem was caused by technical hitches in its Information Technology (IT) department.
The public relations officers of WAEC in Lagos, Mr. Harry Yussuf, said in a telephone conversation that the body was experiencing some technical breakdown, leading to the closure of its site last Friday.
He said the matter was under investigation and called on Nigerians to exercise patience as findings would be made public.
According to him, “We noticed the problem and the head of national office, Iyi Uwadiae, had to order the closure of the website as early as 6am last Friday. Right now, nobody can access the site, so they cannot check their results.
“But we are investigating it. The issue is being addressed and we discovered it is an IT problem. I don’t know the details because I am not an IT man, but they are sorting things out. Nobody is accessing the website now but we are asking Nigerians to be patient with us because as soon as we get to the root of the problem, we will let them know what happened.”
?