What the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) says is that it has held back some subject results from 235 schools for 2023 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) students because they involved cheating and used answers made by computers.
“These cases are still under investigation,” WAEC said.
This is in a press statement from December 18, 2023, signed by John K. Kapi, who is in charge of public relations.
WAEC said, “The withheld results of these candidates may be released or cancelled depending on the results of the investigations.”
At the same time, the Subject Results for 3,647 prospects have been thrown out.
The Council said that the results were thrown out because the candidates brought foreign materials into the test rooms, such as prepared notes, textbooks, and printed materials.
WAEC says that it has also thrown out the entire results of 839 candidates for having cell phones in the exam rooms.
The sub regional examination body said this decision was taken after end of investigations into some of the cases of irregularity reported during the conduct of the examination.
That’s not all, “the 35th Meeting of the Ghana Examinations Committee, held on Wednesday, December 13, 2023, approved the sanctions.”
WAEC further announced the withholding of “Subject Results of 4,280 candidates and the Entire Results of 1,005 for various suspected offences.
WAEC also stated that it has blocked the results of 4,878 candidates who sat for the same examination.
WAEC explained that they took this decision because the candidates failed to return learning support materials given to them by their schools.
The sub-regional examination body said “Such candidates are to contact their schools.”
The WAEC used the release to reveal provisional results for School Candidates in the exam held in Ghana only.
“The Council will make available login details to heads of school to enable them access the results of their candidates. The results have been hosted online and candidates who so wish may access their results at the Council’s website www.waecgh.org,” the release stated.
The Council cautioned “all its stakeholders to be wary of fraudsters who promise to upgrade results for a fee.”
It added that “Candidates are to note that WAEC results are secured and can be authenticated using its results verification system. The WAEC QR code can be downloaded and used to check results.”
“A total number of 448,674 candidates made up of 212,453 males and 236,221 females from 975 schools entered for the examination. This figure is 5.8% higher than the 2022 entry number of 422,883. A total number of 3,404 (0.75%) were missing from the examination,” a part of the release read.
The Council expressed its sincerest gratitude to stakeholders “especially the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, the Security Agencies, Heads of School, Supervisors, Invigilators, Examiners and all who in various ways supported it in the successful conduct of the examination and release of results.”