WAEC completes probe into over 1,000 withheld BECE results

WAEC completes probe into over 1,000 withheld BECE results.

The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), has completed investigations into over one thousand 2017 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results that were withheld.

WAEC withheld 1,298 subject results  of some candidates who sat for the examination on suspicion that they may have engaged in examination malpractices.

According to the Head of Public Affairs of the West Africa Examination Council, Agnes Teye-Cudjoe, students whose results were withheld will be able to see if their results were cleared by end of day today [Tuesday].

“At the meeting, we decided to take action and by the close of work today when candidates go online and check their results, they’ll be able to know their fates,” she told Citi News.

“We’ve taken action on all the results so whether it will be released or cancelled, action has been taken. I’ll not be able to give details on how many have been cancelled and how many have been released now.”

She also confirmed that the schools in which the “irregularities” were detected had already been written to “and we’re waiting for the responses.”

The affected candidates were cited for various malpractices during and after the examination.

According to Agnes Tei Cudjoe, the number excludes candidates who were detected by the Item Differentia Profile (IDP) software to have cheated in the object test.

A total of 468,060 candidates sat for this year’s examination. The number comprises 241,145 males and 226,906 females.

According to WAEC, the number represents a 1.53 percent increase from the 2016 figure. It noted that, 3,315 of the registered candidates did not turn up for the examination sitting.

The candidates were from a total of 15,185 schools and the examination took place at 1,702 examination centres.