John K. Kapi (2nd from right), Head, Public Affairs, WAEC, addressing participants during the media briefing. Those with him are some departmental heads of WAEC. Picture: EDNA SALVO KOTEY

WAEC to release withheld results February 28

Timothy Ngnenbe Feb - 08 - 2025 , 09:57 4 minutes read

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has committed to conclude investigation into all pending cases of examination malpractices involving some schools and students who sat the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and release the results by February 28, this year.

The council has, therefore, appealed to affected students, parents and stakeholders to exercise restraint while it followed a meticulous procedure to finalise the process towards the release of the results.

The Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, John Kapi, made this known at a press briefing yesterday to provide updates on irregularities in last year's WASSCE for school candidates.

He gave an assurance that WAEC had a robust system and procedure for dealing with withheld results, and as such was not resorting to arbitrariness.

Legal action

Mr Kapi added that WAEC had filed a stay of execution in connection with the ruling by the court to release the results of some of the affected students who had dragged the council to court for withholding their results.

Mr Kapi said the stay of execution, which was fixed for hearing on February 20, 2025, was pending following the filing of an appeal at the High Court against the court’s ruling.

He explained that following withholding of the WASSCE results of some students, a group of affected students took the case to court and secured a favourable ruling against the council.

However, Mr Kapi said to ensure fairness to all the affected students, WAEC filed a stay of execution while fast-tracking the investigation process to release all the results.

"The council also wishes to assure its numerous publics that it is working assiduously to ensure that no candidate is cheated or unduly disadvantaged," he said.

Context

A number of irregularities were recorded in the course of the 2024 WASSCE, ranging from bringing foreign materials into the examination halls, snapping and posting questions on social media, distribution of photocopy responses to candidates and cases of invigilators assisting candidates in the examination halls.

A number of these cases, which were of criminal nature, were reported to the police for appropriate action, while others involving candidates directly were reported to the council for the appropriate sanctions to be applied.

Following the completion of investigations into those cases of malpractice, the council, upon approval by the Ghana Examinations Committee, took some consequential decisions, including the cancellation of subject results of 4,108 candidates for bringing foreign material into the examination hall.

The council also cancelled the entire results of 483 candidates for possession of mobile phones in the examination hall.

Again, the subject results of 781 candidates were withheld, same as the entire results of 209 candidates for various suspected offences.

The council further withheld the subject results of candidates from 319 schools.

Touching on the investigation process, Mr Kapi said contrary to the perception that WAEC was being arbitrary in handling the investigations into the withheld results, he said that was not the case.

He said per the long-standing procedure, WAEC wrote to all heads of school, affected by those irregularities, after which it carried out a proper scrutiny of the scripts of the candidates.

"After the scrutiny of scripts, officers meet with the candidates, who are given a fair hearing on the exact circumstances of the alleged malpractices in respect of which the affected candidates have been invited," he said.

Mr Kapi added that the next stage was the invitation of the affected candidates to write statements in response to the allegations against them.

"They are neither coerced nor intimidated into writing the statements as is being alleged by some of the parents," he said.

He explained that as part of the meticulous procedure for dealing with withheld results, WAEC invited all affected students together with their parents and guardians and provided an opportunity for them to have a fair hearing.

He explained that during the hearings, the affected candidates responded to the allegations of their involvement in examination practices, and based on the findings of those hearings the council would announce a final decision on the status of the results.

Collaboration

He said the increase in examination malpractice was alarming and as such concerted efforts were needed to deal with them.

"We would like to stress that the fight against this menace is a collective one. Parents, guardians, the media, and indeed all stakeholders should speak out boldly against this menace in order to give our examination the credibility it deserves and ensure that certificates are awarded to people who truly deserve them," he said.

He appealed to parents, guardians and the candidates involved in the matter to cooperate with the council to enable it to expedite action on the release of the outstanding results.