Anambra State has emerged the overall best in the 2013 West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
The official West African Examination Council result, made available to the media on Thursday, showed that Ghana came first among West African countries while Anambra State came first among states in Nigeria.
Abia, Rivers and Lagos states came second, third and fourth in that order.
The breakdown of the results showed that 12 states in the country recorded percentages that were above national average.
The breakdown is: Anambra – 67.85per cent; Abia – 65.17 percent; Rivers – 58.56 per cent; Lagos – 56.03 per cent; Cross River – 53.34 per cent; Bayelsa – 51.66 per cent; Enugu – 50.22 percent; Delta – 46.49 per cent; Imo – 46.03 per cent; Abuja – 43.9 per cent; Ogun – 39.92 per cent; and Kaduna – 39.47 per cent.
The percentage of the total number of candidates that obtained a minimum of five credits, including English Language and Mathematics, is 36.57 per cent as against 30.90 per cent and 37.66 per cent 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, the Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Uju Okeke, confirmed the development, attributing the success to former Governor Peter Obi’s revolution in the education sector.
She said, “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 N6bn.
“He also committed 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.”
Okeke said she was not surprised at the performance of Anambra schools.