Sierra Leone’s Minister of Basic And Senior Secondary School Education (MBSSE), Conrad Sackey has announced the release of the 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results on Monday, October 2, 2023.

Sackey announced the results on the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) on Monday morning.

243,202 candidates from 888 schools in Sierra Leone entered for the May. June was in 2023.

The results for 28 private schools that are owing WAEC were not on the list sent to the MBSSE which contains just 230,973 names from 860 schools.

191,077 candidates on the list released to the MBSSE sat for at least one subject or paper.

33,238 were without results as the results have been withheld while another 6,658 had no results as they were absent from all subjects.

Released results will start to be distributed to schools today October 2, 2023.

Candidate entry for 2023 is the highest ever recorded at 243,202. The entry was even higher than the 163,860 entries for the 2003 NPSE and the 206,874 entries for the 2022 WASSCE.

At the same time, a total of 34,525 results withheld are the highest ever. This demonstrates the continuing efforts of MBSSE and WAEC to eradicate examination malpractices.

Of the 230,973 candidates on the results received by MBSSE. 121,324 were female and 109,649 were male that is 52.5% were female. This continues the trend of more female than male candidates’ entries for WASSCE.

A total of 1,630,980 subject papers were written by the 191,077 candidates that sat at least one subject. 1,346,855 passes were recorded giving the pass rate of 83%. Given the pass rates in 2021 and 2022 were 64% and 77%. This year’s pass rate is the highest ever.

The number of students obtaining the benchmark minimum of five credits in the same sitting is the highest ever. From 113,824 in 2022, it has moved to 137,796 in 2023, even with a large number of results still withheld.

The breakdown shows that 551 candidates obtained a credit grade or better in at least five subjects but did not obtain a credit in English Language or Mathematics.

233 candidates obtained a credit grade or better in 5 subjects including English Language but did not obtain a credit grade in Mathematics.

105,924 candidates obtained credit grades or better in at least five subjects, including maths, but did not obtain a credit in English language.

Only 1,088 candidates obtained a credit grade or better in at least 5 subjects including Maths and English Language.

14,688 candidates have 3 credits, whilst another 26,128 candidates have 4 credits. These candidates would qualify for entry to some post-secondary certificate and diploma programmes.

Two candidates shared the top position in the 2023 WASSCE results released to MBSSE. One is a female and the other is a Male. They are both from the same school. Their names are Raymonda E. Mammah and Sahr Edward Fille. Their school of entry was Providence International Senior High School. Both sat 9 subjects, they obtained 8 A1s which is excellent, and 1 B2 which is very good. The average grade/unit was 1.11, which is excellent.

16 of the candidates with released results in 2023 have better average grades than the best average grade obtained in 2022.

The best-performing school is Providence International Senior High School which had the results for 185 of its candidates released. All 185 candidates, that is 100%, obtained a credit or better in a minimum of five subjects including English Language and Mathematics, that is, they all obtained the requirement for direct entry into a university undergraduate degree program.

As already indicated, the number of candidates achieving direct university undergraduate degree programme requirements by obtaining 5 credits, including credits in English Language and Mathematics in a single sitting is 137,245 even higher than the 108, 418 of 2022.

This is not muted as it has been reached even with the withholding of 34,525 results, which when released could result in even more candidates meeting the university entrance requirements.

The percentage of candidates with credit grades or better in English language was disappointingly low at 17%. There are variations in performance in all subjects, but the overall performance in different subjects is much better in 2023 than in 2022.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK 2023 WASSCE RESULTS