Claim: WAEC Liberia releases 2023 12th grade results with 33 thousand plus students failing.
Verdict: False, WAEC has not released the final results of students’ examinations.
Full Text: In May of this year, 49,842 12th graders took the West African Senior Secondary Examination Exam (WASSEE) 2022/2023, which is given to secondary students throughout the West African Regions.
The West African Examination Council (WAEC) is the body responsible for administering the public tests to third, sixth, nine, and twelve graders in the fifteen counties of Liberia.
The exam, which is administered yearly, is intended to put to the test students leaving high school who will be enrolling in diverse higher institutions of learning to foster their education.
On Thursday, August 10, 2023, many blogs and social media users posted claims of mass failure from the 2022–2023 examination conducted by the WAEC authority local office in Monrovia. One of the many blogs that posted this result is Liberian Influence, which spells out that a total of 33 thousand plus students sat the exam for the year under review.
The random social media post claims that a total of 33,124 students, which amounts to 100 per cent of students, wrote the exams for 12th graders across the country. The poster claimed that 11,544 students passed, 21,580 failed, and 649 students died in all subjects.
As mandated by the Ministry of Education, WASSCE results have to be released before any institutions in the country can graduate a single student.
Verification: Following claims and counterclaims from the public on the release of the 2022–2023 WASSCE result, Stage Media contacted Mr. Dale Gbotoe, head of WAEC, who dismissed the report in public. “This is misleading reporting to the public that we have released the 2022 and 2023 results, as I’m not in the country and my team has not released any results.” Mr. Gboto added.
Gboto mentioned that the result has not been released because the government of Liberia owes the institution the sum of four million United States dollars ($4 million), contrary to claims that the result was released, capturing over 33 thousand mass failures.
He added that the government of Liberia has paid 95 per cent of what it owes the National examination center of the country, and as such, the balance cannot prevent the results from being released.
Mr. Dale Gboto, further revealed that the postponement of the 2022–2023 results is because he is not in the country and is expected to be in the country over the weekend.
He encourages the public to be kind and avoid running with baseless information about the release of the exam results, as the body responsible is doing all in its power to have the results released next week of this month.
Conclusion: Therefore, the post by the Liberian Influence, over 33 thousand Liberian students failed the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Exam is misleading.
This story was produced with the Center for Journalism Innovation and Development’s (CJID) support.
