Peter Okoye, PBA Journalism MenteeThe West African Examination Council (WAEC), has honoured three candidates, two Ghanaians and one Nigerian, with the WAEC International Excellence Award for their outstanding performance in the 2022 Senior School Certificate (SSCE).
This was disclosed in a press statement released by WAEC’s Head of Public Affairs, Demianus Ojijeogu, at the end of its 71st Annual Council Meeting in Banjul, Gambia.
In his speech, the Chairman of the council, Prof Ato Essuman, expressed profound gratitude to the governments of the five-member countries for the confidence reposed in WAEC and for providing the enabling environment in which the council had executed its mandate creditably for 71 years.
He stated that the Council took time to select the best three candidates out of a total of 2,276,112 candidates who sat for the Senior School Certificate Examination in Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, in 2022.
He said: “At the formal opening of the meeting, the council honoured three candidates with the WAEC International Excellence Award for their outstanding performance in the WASSCE for school candidates, 2022.
“They were Master Alex Opoku Manu, a Ghanaian (1st Prize), Master Benjamin Degbey, a Ghanaian (2nd Prize), and Miss Chioma Obidigbo, a Nigerian (3rd Prize). The three candidates were selected from a total of 2,276,112 candidates who sat the examination in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The Augustus Bandele Oyediran Award for the Best Candidate in West Africa, 2022 also went to Master Alex Opoku Manu.”
Also in his speech, the President of The Gambia, Adama Barrow, applauded the examination body for its exemplary service to citizens of the member countries, stating that WAEC is the only body that had withstood termination among the regional bodies founded during the colonial era.
He, therefore, urged the council to continue to be pertinent to the needs and aspirations of its stakeholders in all the member countries in a technologically fast-changing world.
The President also hailed WAEC on its efforts in the fight against examination malpractice and called on all stakeholders to join hands to address the imperilment.
In her remarks, the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Claudiana Cole, restated the government’s commitment to meeting the funding needs of WAEC in the Gambia as a way of ensuring a good and quantitative education system in the country.
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