Over 22,774 candidates are starting the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for private candidates across the country today as a window of opportunity for both those who want to better their grades and those who want to try it for the first time.

The WASSCE First Series, popularly known as Jan-Feb (January-February) among students, is only taking place in the regional capitals.

The Head of Public Affairs of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), John Kapi, told the Daily Graphic that "all is set for the start of the examination".

He said all the logistics for the examination had been dispatched to the various regions.

In terms of security, Mr Kapi said the council had been able to secure all the storage facilities across the country where the examination would be written.

“Because this is not a very big exam, it will be written in the major regional capitals.

That is where the examinations will be written, and then we have maybe a few other areas where we think that we have candidature, where we don't want the candidates to travel too far from wherever they are.

“So, everything is ready. Because it's a private examination, we would engage invigilators and supervisors on our own.

Some of them are actually teaching,” Mr Kapi said.

On measures put in place to deal with possible impersonation, collusion and other examination malpractices, he said the various stakeholders had been briefed as to the dos and don’ts.

Clear 
“We ensure that the rules that are meant to govern the examination are made clear to every single candidate.

So, for private examinations, for example, once you go to register, you also have information that tells you what you should do and what you should not do.

So, the candidates have been adequately sensitised,” the WAEC official said.

Mr Kapi said the fingerprints of a candidate could tell the profile of the person.

He said candidates were made to select their centres based on region and location.

The WAEC Head of Public Affairs gave the assurance that by the close of the week, all of the candidates would have received their admission notice indicating where they would write the examination and what they would require for the examination.

2025 WASSCE performance

In the Mathematics paper for this year’s WASSCE for School Candidates, 209,068 (48.73 per cent) had A1-C6; 52,991 (11.62 per cent) had D7; 52,145 (12.15 per cent) obtained E8, while 114,872 (26.77 per cent) had F9.

For Integrated Science, 220,806 (57.74 per cent) candidates scored A1-C6; 54,580 (11.85 per cent) had D7; 45,783 (11.79 per cent) recorded E8, while 61,243 (16.05 per cent) obtained F9.

Another core subject, Social Studies, had 248,538 (55.82 per cent) candidates scoring A1-C6, with 33,670 (7.38 per cent) candidates recording D7, while 40,608 (9.12 per cent) had E8, and 122,449 (27.50 per cent) settled for F9.

In English Language, 289,673 (60 per cent) of the candidates scored between A1-C6; 37,712 (8.18 per cent) had D7; 39,091 (9.23 per cent) had E8, and 54,294 (12.86 per cent) had F9.

A total number of 461,736 candidates, made up of 207,415 males and 254,321 females from 1,021 schools, registered for the examination.