The West African Examination Council  (WAEC) says the performance of candidates in its 2017 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is an improvement over the ones recorded in the recent past.

The council’s Head of National Office, Mr Olu Adenipekun, said this in Lagos on Monday, at a news conference to announce results of the May/June diet of the examination.

He said that 923,486 of the 1,559,162 candidates that sat for the examination, representing 59.22 per cent, obtained a minimum of credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics.

The official said the percentage of candidates in this category in the WASSCE for school candidates was an improvement on what was obtained in the same examination in both 2015 and 2016 diets, with 38.68 and 52.97 respectively.

Adenipekun, however, said some 214,952 results of candidates that sat for the examination were being withheld in connection with various reported cases of examination malpractice.

Giving a further breakdown of the results, the WAEC boss said that 1,084,214 candidates, representing 69.94 per cent, obtained credits and above in six subjects.

He said that 1,243,772 candidates, representing 87.05 per cent, obtained credits and above in four subjects.

He added that of the 1,559,162 candidates that sat for the examination, 1,471,151, representing 94.36 per cent, had their results fully processed and released.

The WAEC official called on candidates who sat for the examination to check the details of their performance on the council’s result website within the next few hours.