The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has dismissed claims by the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, that the results for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) would be released by December 29, 2024.
According to John Kapi, Director of Public Affairs at WAEC, the Minister’s statement is “factually false”.
WAEC had earlier announced that the release of the results had been delayed due to a breakdown of scanners and the government’s outstanding debts, which have hindered the council’s ability to repair or purchase new scanners. Despite this, Dr. Adutwum claimed that the results would be released by December 29, following a visit to the WAEC printing facility.
However, speaking on Starr News, WAEC’s Director of Public Affairs, John Kapi, refuted the Minister’s statement, describing it as factually inaccurate.
John Kapi revealed that the Minister did not have a formal meeting with WAEC officials to discuss the release of the results.
Instead, he was taken on a tour of the facility, shown the broken scanners and the heap of objective answer cards to be scanned, and then left without making any commitments or announcements.
He emphasised that it has not issued any statement confirming the release of the results by December 29.
The council is still awaiting the release of additional funds from the Ministry of Education to repair the scanners and complete the post-examination activities.
He explained, “The Minister came there, he was taken around by the head of office, shown the broken down machines, the ones that were working but not at full rate because they were still not fully fixed. They showed him the heap of objective answer cards to be scanned and he stepped out. There was no formal meeting like, okay let’s sit down and discuss the way forward. What do we do? When are they going to fix the machine, nothing like that happened.”
“Then he stepped out and spoke to the media that we say we will release the results by 28th or 29th of December, latest but WAEC has not issued any statement to that effect and so that is factually incorrect. This is scandalous because why are we toying with people’s future?”