IN SHORT: The West African Examinations Council hasn’t rated Nigeria’s Abia state as the best performing state in the 2023 senior school certificate exams. The council has asked the public to disregard the message.
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has rated Abia state as the best performing state in the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). That’s according to a message posted on Facebook in September 2023.
Abia state is in southeastern Nigeria and was created in 1991.
The council is West Africa's leading examining board established to conduct public examinations and award certificates in English-speaking countries in the region.
The body conducts the certificate examination twice a year, the first in May/June for school candidates and the second in October/November for private candidates.
Private candidates are those who register for the examination on an individual basis.
The message on Facebook reads: “ABIA STATE HAS TAKEN 1ST POSITION IN THE WAEC LAST EXAMINATION.”
The message also appeared here, here, here and here on Facebook.
In August 2022, WAEC disowned a similar message, which claimed that Edo state had emerged as the best performing state in the 2021 WASSCE.
Is this another fake message? We checked.
WAEC disowns state ranking
On 12 October 2023, WAEC warned that the statistics should be disregarded.
“The attention of the West African Examinations Council has been drawn to a social media post stating that Abia State, has been rated as the best-performing State in the WASSCE for school candidates, 2023, in Nigeria. This is far from the truth. The Council completely and totally disassociates itself from the publication,” it said.
WAEC said it didn’t rank the performance of states in its examination.
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