- By Emery Watson and By Peter Bayor Bishop
— Announces next week’s timeline
The Head of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) in Liberia, Mr. Dale G. Gbotoe, has strongly dismissed rumors circulating on social media and in some online media outlets suggesting that WASSCE results will be released tomorrow.
Speaking Tuesday at the Ministry of Information, Culture Affairs, and Tourism (MICAT), Mr. Gbotoe clarified that the results will not be released on Wednesday, as speculated.
“We don’t know the source of that news,” Mr. Gbotoe said. “But we have come to tell you that the WASSCE results will not be released tomorrow. We remain committed to the timeline we gave the government, which is before August 15.”
According to him, WAEC will release the results for all four public exams, the Third Grade National Assessment Test, the Sixth Grade Primary School Certificate Exam, the Junior High School Certificate Exam, and the West African Senior School Certificate Exam, either Tuesday or Thursday of next week.
Mr. Gbotoe emphasized that WAEC does not release results directly to the public. Instead, they are first submitted to the Ministry of Education, which then forwards them to the Office of the President for final approval and public release.
“We want to avoid a situation where WAEC makes a public pronouncement and the President hears about it in the media,” he explained. “As of now, we haven’t even handed the results to the Ministry. That will be done over the weekend.”
A total of more than 180,000 students sat for the various exams administered by WAEC this year. Mr. Gbotoe expressed gratitude to the Liberian government, which sponsored the fees for approximately 80,000 students, including over 23,000 candidates at the junior high school level attending public schools.
“We want to appreciate the Government of Liberia for the payments made,” he said. “Without their support, we wouldn’t be in a position to release the results now.”
WAEC’s boss disclosed that part of the delay is due to the need to ensure proper validation of results. He revealed that the council faced challenges with answer sheets for the objective portion of the exam, which are graded by machines.
“There were many instances where candidates tried to alter their answer sheets after the machine had already scored them,” Mr. Gbotoe stated. “Such actions created scanning issues, forcing WAEC to manually review and correct these anomalies to ensure fairness.”
In a major shift, Mr. Gbotoe also announced WAEC’s plans to transition to computer-based testing (CBT) beginning next year, starting with public schools that already have digital infrastructure.
“You cannot use yesterday’s tools to teach future leaders,” he said. “Digital transformation is the way forward. The government has indicated that 156 schools are equipped, and we have already visited some of them.”
Gbotoe stressed that digital testing will not only modernize assessment but also significantly reduce costs and logistical burdens. “We will phase out the traditional paper-based exams in schools with the capacity,” he said, adding that students need to be exposed to computer-based learning and testing throughout the academic year to succeed in digital public exams.
The WAEC official further disclosed that close to 100 people, mostly adults, were arrested during this year’s exams for allegedly aiding and abetting examination malpractice. He clarified that the suspects were not students.
Gbotoe urged the public to disregard rumors from unofficial sources and rely only on announcements made through official government platforms.
“We are committed to transparency. When the time comes, either next Tuesday or Thursday, we will release the results here at MICAT,” he noted.
