| HISTORY
Introduction
The West African Examinations Council, a non-profit-making
organization, with its headquarters in Accra, Ghana, was established
in 1952 after the Governments of Ghana (then Gold Coast),
Nigeria, Sierra Leone and The Gambia enacted the West African
Examinations Council Ordinances in 1951. Liberia became the
fifth member of the Council in 1974.
The enactment of the Ordinances was based on the Jeffrey Report,
which strongly supported the proposal for the setting up of
a regional examining board to harmonise and standardise pre-university
assessment procedures in the then British West Africa.
The main objectives of the Council are:
• To conduct examinations in the public interest
• To award certificates, provided that the certificates
did not represent lower standards of attainment than equivalent
certificates of examining authorities in the United Kingdom
.
Convention Establishing the Council
The Council celebrated its 30 th anniversary in March 1982
in Monrovia , Liberia during which the Convention establishing
the WAEC was signed. The Convention was subsequently ratified
by member Governments and came into force in August 1984.
The Council under the Convention was inaugurated in March
1985. The Convention now gives uniform legal backing to the
operations of Council in all the member countries, makes provision
for significant changes in the structure of the Council and
gives it legal personality as an international body. A Headquarters
Agreement signed with the Government of Ghana in 1987 confers
certain privileges and immunities on Council's Headquarters
in Ghana . |
