Anambra emerges overall best in 2013 WASSCE

Anambra State has emerged the overall best in the 2013 West African Senior School Certificate Examination.

The official WAEC result, made available to The PUNCH, on Thursday, show that Ghana came first among West African countries while Anambra State came first among states in Nigeria followed by Abia, Rivers and Lagos states.

The breakdown of the results show that 12 states in Nigeria recorded percentage that were above national average.

The breakdown are in the following order: Anambra – 67.85percent; Abia – 65.17 percent; Rivers – 58.56 percent; Lagos – 56.03 percent; Cross River – 53.34 percent; Bayelsa – 51.66 percent; Enugu – 50.22 percent; Delta – 46.49 percent; Imo – 46,03 percent; Abuja – 43.9 percent; Ogun – 39.92 percent; and Kaduna – 39.47 percent.

The percentage of the total number of candidates that obtained a minimum of five credits including English Language and General Mathematics was 36.57 percent as against 30.90 percent and 37.66 percent of the 2011 and 2012 May/June 2013 WASSCE respectively.

This, according to WAEC, implies that the average performance of the candidates in the May/June 2013 WASSCE was slightly lower than that of the 2012.

When contacted on phone, the Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Uju Okeke, confirmed the development, which she attributed to former Governor Peter Obi’s revolution in the education sector.

She said, “Gov. Peter Obi did everything conceivable to return education to its former glory in Anambra State. He returned schools to their missionary owners and until he left, gave them financial grant to the tune of over Six billion naira.

“He also committed a lot of funds to the rebuilding of government-owned schools. Besides, he provided over 750 buses to schools in the state as well as generators, sickbays, laboratory equipment, Internet facilities, over 25,000 computers to schools in the state, among many others.”

Dr. Okeke said she was not surprised at the performance of Anambra schools.

The commissioner rather said she was looking forward to Anambra out-performing other states with wider margin, saying, “Any state that makes commensurate investment in education as Obi did would not expect any less.”

She disclosed that because of the effect of Obi’s revolution on educational performance, the World bank commissioned team of experts, led by the renowned Prof. Paul Collier, to study what Obi was doing and that in the end they recommended his model to other countries to copy.

She expressed happiness that the incumbent Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has assured that the same policy on education would continue.