The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has withheld the entire results of some 48,555 candidates who sat for the 2019 West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) pending investigations into various cases of examination malpractices.
The 48,555 represents 14.12% of the entire 346,094 candidates entered for the examinations.
This was disclosed in a press release signed by the Head of Public Affairs of WAEC, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe.
According to WAEC, the results were withheld as a result of various cases of examination malpractice detected during and after the conduct of the examination.
The malpractices include;
- bringing foreign material such as prepared notes, printed material and mobile phones to the examination hall;
- collusion among candidates ;
- planned cheating which occurred with the connivance of some supervisors and school authorities.
WAEC added that the withheld results of candidates may be cancelled or released based on the outcome of the investigations.
Tackling examination malpractice
In June, WAEC instituted some measures including banning the use of cellular devices at examination centres to curb malpractices.
Consequently, invigilators, supervisors and candidates were directed not to use mobile phones and other such gadgets during examinations.
According to WAEC, the ban had become necessary after the results of a research which established that adults were primary culprits in examination malpractice at all levels of education in the country.
In addition, it said, no supervisor or invigilator would be allowed, under any circumstance, to supervise or invigilate candidates from schools to which the supervisor or invigilator was affiliated.
