The West African Examination Council, WAEC has officially announced the release of results for the May/June 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).
The number of candidates who passed with at least 5 credits, including English and Maths, declined from 1.27 million (1,274,784) in 2021 to 1.22 million (1,222,505) in 2022.
Likewise, the percentage of candidates who passed with at least 5 credits, including English and Maths, declined from 81.7% in 2021 to 76.36% in 2022.
Source: Vanguard, Premium Times; Chart: Dataphyte Research
The newly released WASCE result complete a 5-year pattern of waxing in 2019 and waning in 2020, then waxing in 2021 before waning again in 2022, with regards to the number of candidates who passed and the percentage of the total candidates who passed with at least 5 credits including English and Maths.
Many reasons have been given for the unstable performance of the WASCE candidates, including security in the Northwest and South East. However, it is unclear if the state of insecurity in the country too has been waxing and waning in the past 5 years.
On the other hand, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Government of misinforming Nigerians about its demands. ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with The Guardian in Abuja, refuted the claim by Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, that ASUU was demanding N1.1trillion.
The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS who at some point demanded the sacking of the Education Minister, has also expressed disappointment in the position of the Federal Government over striking institutions.
Contrary to the foregoing, the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, directed his appeal to the lecturers on strike to resume as soon as possible, saying the delay in resumption is equivalent to procrastination of evil days.
WHO’s worrisome Report
In a worrisome development, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that over 160 million Nigerians are currently at risk of yellow fever. “Nigeria’s population is around 200 million, with 160 million at risk of yellow fever. This makes up around 25% of all the people at risk in Africa,” according to a World Health Organisation Press Release posted by Reliefweb.
According to the NCDC disease factsheet, “Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic illness caused by the yellow fever virus, an RNA virus that belongs to the family Flaviviridae. The virus is found in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa and Central/South America, with the illness being endemic in 34 African countries (including Nigeria) and 13 Central and South American countries.
Transmission in Africa is maintained by a high density of Aedes mosquito populations close to largely unvaccinated human populations. Occasionally, infected travellers from areas where yellow fever occurs have exported cases to countries free of yellow fever.”
Following infection, the virus incubates in the body for three to six days. Many people do not experience symptoms, but when these occur, they vary from very mild, nonspecific, febrile illness to a fulminating, sometimes fatal disease. The clinical symptoms associated with the early stages of infection are indistinguishable from those of influenza or malaria, mainly fever, muscle pain with prominent backache, headache, loss of appetite, and nausea or vomiting.
The NCDC factsheet indicates that “In most cases, symptoms disappear after 3 to 4 days. A small percentage of patients, however, enter a second, more toxic phase within 24 hours of recovering from initial symptoms. High fever returns, and several body systems are affected, usually the liver and the kidneys, and also the heart and occasionally the brain.
In this phase, people will likely develop jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes), dark urine and abdominal pain with vomiting. Bleeding can occur from the mouth, nose, eyes or stomach. Only 15 per cent of people with yellow fever enter this phase, but of those that do, approximately half die within 7 – 10 days.”
The NCDC advised that vaccination with the yellow fever vaccine provides life-long protection and is the most important means of preventing yellow fever. Vaccination strategies useful in preventing yellow fever disease and its transmission include routine infant immunisation, Mass vaccination campaigns designed to increase coverage in countries at risk, and Vaccination of travellers going to yellow fever endemic areas.