Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Retired Brigadier General (Dr.) Julius Maada Bio

Your Excellency, the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Hon. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh

Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Abass Chernor Bundu

Minister of Basic & Senior Secondary Education, Hon. Conrad Sackey

Cabinet Ministers, here present

Members of Parliament, here present

Chairman of Council, Prof. Ato Essuman

Vice Chairman of Council, Mr. Ebrima Sisawo

Chief Government Nominees and other Members of Council

Heads of National Office

Your Worship, the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, OBE

Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corp, here present

Former Chairmen of Council, here present

Former Registrars to Council, here present

Former Heads of National Office, here present

WAEC Members of Staff and Retirees of the Council

Principals of Schools, here present

Excellence Award Winners and their Parents, here present

Teachers and Students, here present

Gentlemen of the Media

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

INTRODUCTION

It is with great joy and profound gratitude that I welcome you all to the formal opening ceremony of the 72^nd Annual Council Meeting.

I am delighted to convey to you hearty felicitations from the entire WAEC family in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. We are grateful for the love, interest, and support that you have continued to show to the Council and for finding time to celebrate with us on this special occasion amidst your busy schedules. We are immensely grateful to the Chief Host, His Excellency, Retired Brigadier General (Dr.) Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, for honouring our invitation to open this meeting. Mr. President, we appreciate your government hosting this meeting and the provisions made for the hospitality and well-being of the delegates.

ROTATIONAL PRINCIPLE

Your Excellency, hosting the Annual Council Meeting follows a rotational arrangement among the five member countries of WAEC. Based on the arrangement, each country takes its turn to host the meeting once every five years after the meeting must have gone full cycle around the five countries. Delegates would recall that the last time we converged in Freetown was in 2019 when Sierra Leone hosted the 67^th Annual Council Meeting.

THE COUNCIL’S EXAMINATIONS

Your Excellency, Distinguished Ladies, and Gentlemen, the two categories of examinations currently conducted by WAEC in the member countries are the international and the national examinations. In 2023, the Council’s international examination, the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), was conducted in all the member countries in May/June for school candidates except Ghana which had theirs in August/September and November/December for private candidates. WASSCE was also conducted in January/February for private candidates in The Gambia, Liberia, and Nigeria. The Council’s national examinations were similarly conducted in the individual member countries for which they were specifically developed. The national examinations included the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in The Gambia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, the Junior High School Certificate Examination (JHSCE) and the Primary School Certificate Examination (PSCE) in Liberia, the General Business Certificate Examination (GBCE) and the Advanced Business Certificate Examination (ABCE) in Ghana, the National Primary School Examination (NPSE) in Sierra Leone, and the National Assessment Test (NAT) in The Gambia and Liberia.

PATRONAGE

In 2023, the Council’s international examination – the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) – was taken by 2,525,460 candidates. The total entry figure comprised 2,380,798 school candidates and 144,662 private candidates. The candidates included 1,227,431 males and 1,298,029 females. The 2022 total entry figure reflected an increase of 84,690 (or 3.46%) over the 2022 figure of 2,440,770.

The Council’s main national examinations were conducted for 1,126,921 candidates. In addition, the Council conducted aptitude/selection tests for public and private institutions across the sub-region.  The test batteries were developed by the Council’s Aptitude Test Development Section of the Research Department.  A total of 9,490 testees, were presented by corporate clients.

The overall patronage for the Council’s international and national examinations and aptitude tests increased by 151,189 or 3.88% in 2023, as the total candidature rose to 3,662,083 from the total of 3,510,894 recorded in the previous year 2022.

EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE

Your Excellency, in the period under review, various forms of malpractice were recorded in the Council’s examinations across the sub-region. The Council has continued to deploy cutting-edge technology to sharpen the existing monitoring mechanisms and strengthen its investigative systems across the sub-region. We are grateful to some school proprietors, principals, teachers, and community leaders who, through their actions and pronouncements have demonstrated zero tolerance for examination malpractice. We also continue to appreciate the efforts of the various associations of school principals and teachers in the member countries who have relentlessly sensitised their members against compromise in public examinations. We wish to reiterate our constant appeal to the member governments that urgent steps should be taken to activate all existing relevant legislations, or promulgate new ones where none exists, to discourage the perpetration of examination fraud in their respective countries.

FINANCE

In the reporting period, just like over the years, the payment of contributions and subvention by some Member Governments was as usual, characterised by crippling delays, shortfalls, and non-remittances. This has been our plight as getting the member governments to fulfil their statutory payment of Contributions to the Headquarters and Subventions to the national offices has continued to be difficult, however, the Council was able to deliver quality service within the period. Furthermore, though the situation about funding remained the same in 2023, we have several other reasons to thank the government of each member country. Taking cognizance of the financial situations of most of our member countries, we appreciate the much they have been able to do to keep the Council going and the enabling environment they have created that has enabled WAEC to flourish for seventy-two years. We are grateful to the Chairman of Council, Chief Government Nominees, and Council Members for being relentless in their efforts to make the Member Governments show greater commitment to the funding of the Council.

WAEC ENDOWMENT FUND

Distinguished guests, yesterday, the 29^th in the series of WAEC Endowment Fund Lectures was delivered by Professor Miriam Elizabeth Conteh-Morgan with the title: “Moving Towards the Light: Revisioning Higher Education”. We appreciate the distinguished Professor for her brilliant presentation of that scholarly piece.

Today, under the auspices of the WAEC Endowment Fund, the WAEC Excellence Award in respect of WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023 will be presented to three candidates – Master Amo-Kodieh, Leonard Kofi (1^st Prize), Master Dzandu, Selorm (2nd Prize) and Master Asenso-Gyambibi, Daniel (3rd Prize). In addition, Master Amo-Kodieh, Leonard Kofi will receive the Augustus Bandele Oyediran Award for Best Candidate in West Africa. The three winners were selected from 2,327,342 candidates who sat WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023 in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

At this ceremony also, the prestigious Award of Distinguished Friend of Council will be conferred on an eminent citizen of Sierra Leone, Prof. Jonas A. S. Redwood-Sawyerr, for his invaluable contributions to the Council’s achievements and the sub-region’s educational development.

CONCLUSION

Your Excellency, Distinguished Ladies, and Gentlemen, in conclusion, I wish to express gratitude to our Member Governments for doing everything necessary to keep WAEC in existence. I thank all the Ministers of Education and their principal officers for strengthening their collaborations with WAEC.

I am grateful to the Chairman of Council, the Vice-Chairman, and the Council Members for their support to the Council and contributions to its achievements.

I appreciate the Heads of National Office and the entire staff of the Council for their dedication and loyalty.

I commend our item writers, moderators, centre supervisors, invigilators, custodians/depot keepers, internet providers, and others for their contributions to the Council’s successes.

Mr. President, the Council appreciates you, Sir, for approving this meeting to be hosted by Sierra Leone and for honouring our humble invitation to formally open the meeting.

Most of all, I glorify the Almighty God because our flagship organisation, which He has sustained for seventy-two years, is still waxing strong and delivering quality service to its numerous stakeholders.

I thank you all.