The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has announced the release of the provisional results of candidates who sat for this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) with the results of 417 examinees having at least one examination paper cancelled.
Some 531,707 candidates comprised of 269,408 males and 262,299 females sat for the 2020 BECE. The candidates were from 17,436 schools and the examination was administered at 2,012 centers.
A statement signed by Mrs Agnes Teye–Cudjoe, Head, Public Affairs, Head of National Office, WAEC, the Council the papers had been canceled because candidates took foreign materials into the examination halls in contravention of the rules.
The Final Award and the Examiners Appointment Committee for the BECE, it said, had approved the cancellation of the results for bringing foreign material into the examination hall and engaging in collusion.
44 candidates had their entire results cancelled for bringing mobile phones into examination halls, according to the statement. An additional 977 candidates have had their subject results withheld pending the conclusion of investigations in various cases of alleged examination malpractices.
“The withheld results of candidates may be cancelled or released based on the outcome of investigations,” the statement said.
According to the statement, this year’s BECE recorded candidate absenteeism of 1.59%.