WAEC to print certificates only on request

Saddled with the task of warehousing over 30,000 unclaimed certificates belonging to private candidates that wrote past editions of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) examinations for private candidates, the West African Examination Council (WAEC), says it would henceforth print certificates only on request by the candidates.

Some of the unclaimed certificates date back to the 1990s as candidates continue to display lack-lustre attitude towards taking delivery of this vital document.

Certificates of the WASSCE for school candidates will, however, still be printed as usual, and dispatched to schools for collection by candidates.

According to Head, Public Affairs, WAEC Nigeria, Demianus Ojijeogu, over the years, most private candidates only show up to claim their certificates when there is an emergency, a job interview to undergo, clearance to travel abroad among other such reasons.

So, “WAEC will, beginning with the 2016 West African Senior School Certificate Examination for private candidates, start printing certificates only on request by private candidates. The new process is a departure from the old arrangement whereby candidates collect their certificates from the council’s zonal or branch office in the states where they wrote their examination.

“Rather, the private candidates examination certificates, starting with this year’s WASSCE is now to be collected in a specified WAEC office desired by the candidate,” he stated.

“The payment for the certificate and delivery notices will all be handled by the portal online. The portal is also inclusive of the back office through which the administrators manage the system,” he stated.

Ojijeogu, who informed that the system was developed by the council in-house programmers, added that the payment integration for the application, domain name registration and deployment consultancy were handled by Greater Height Consulting. A domain name www.waec.education has been registered to host the portal.

In a related development, the council said it will stop the amendment of date of birth on certificates issued to its candidates beginning from January 1st, 2017. Therefore all requests for amendment of any information on bio-data can only be considered during and after registration.