Monrovia – Twenty-three-year-old Elvis Juasemai was the only student who passed the trial test of West African Senior Secondary School Examinations (WASSCE) in 2013 while attending the Soltiamon Christian School.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
Juasemai was among 17 students who made successful pass the test when the West African Examination council recorded 7,884 failures (29.49%) out of 26,993 registered candidates. Last week, authorities of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Monrovia National Office released provisional results of this year’s WASSCE maiden exams covering senior and junior high schools.
In the senior high category, of which a total of 33,979 candidates from 600 high schools submitted entries, 21,580 candidates representing 65.15 percent of the candidates who sat the examination were unsuccessful.
According to WAEC authorities, only 11,544 candidates representing 34.85 percent of candidates, who sat the examination made a successful pass in individual subjects. The exam was administered from April 3 to April 20, 2018.
The result, Juasemai said, should claim the attention of all stakeholders in the country.
He said the first trial test was a difficult decision for him to write but his education foundation encouraged him.
“I feel it is a bad image for the country, over and over our education system has been condemned and we must tackle every loophole to improve it,” he said.
He called on the government to put more efforts in providing resources for students to enhance the learning of Liberian students.
“The Government must create the avenue, every city, town should have a public library and schools must also equip their learning facility,” he said.
He recalled that WASSCE is a practical exam and laboratories should be in each school in enhancing the successful pass of students.
“Growing up, I was involved in academic activities which gave me an average over my peers during the exam”.
WAEC’s authorities said “855 candidates’ results are withheld for examination malpractice, including 60 candidates who were caught with cell phones, 40 candidates caught with foreign materials, 62 candidates caught for irregular activities, 122 candidates for insults and assaults and 571 candidates from 14 schools for collusion”.
Juasemai called on Liberian students to “Push themselves if they want to succeed, they cannot allow peer pressure to reduce their thinking, these days the youths have engaged in drugs which are declining the capabilities of them.”
“Tramadol or cocaine cannot allow you to successfully pass the exam; it’s time that youth prioritize their education to improve the system that our ex-president described as a mess.”